Irene Sparks advertised across Otago and further afield for ties to build up her own collection, and with assistance from the Otago Daily Times last year, received another few thousand from readers.
She washed and ironed each tie and stored them in large plastic containers.
Confident she is well clear of the old Guinness World record, held by an United States man who collected 16,055 ties, Mrs Sparks is now preparing to make her official count.
She has taken what she believes is 23,301 ties to the former BNZ premises on the corner of Oamaru’s Thames and Coquet Sts, where she has set up assorted displays of selected ties, some of which featured in an exhibition she held at the Forrester Gallery last year.
The Guinness regulations state there must be no two the same, and the official counting of the ties must be videoed from start to finish.
July 29 has been set as the counting date.
She estimated it would take 19 and a-half hours to count them on her own non-stop.
A former salesman of the Parisien tie brand was calling in to help with the sorting in the first week in May, she said.
Her collection included 45 ties from New Zealand designer Rixon Groove, square-ended ties, leather ones, hand-knitted creations, and 36 different named tartans. Vertical stripes are rare, there are only about 200 with polka dots, and a tie from the Netherlands has a tiny silver clog attached to the tip.
Mrs Sparks’ interest in ties began with her knack for sewing. She amassed enough old ties to make into bed quilts and by then was fascinated with the variety she had seen in fabric, design, width, origin and purpose.
- Sally Brooker
