Collection Ties Fashion to History : Clothing: An exhibit of 50 years of neckwear proves that it is often anything but humble. Organizers say as times get tougher, men’s choices grow more expressive.

The man who walked into the art gallery at Woodbury University last year did not think of himself as a patron of the arts. His home did not have art of great value on the walls and he didn’t frequent the local art scene.

But Rosalie Utterbach, one of the organizers of that exhibition and a professor of fashion design at the university, spotted him as soon as he walked into the room. She took him aside for a chat.

“We have another exhibition coming up that I want to talk to you about,” she said after introducing herself. “I want to borrow something from you for it, if that would be OK with you.

“I want your tie.”

That tie and more than 300 others from the last 50 years of fashion are part of “The Humble Tie,” an exhibit that opened at the Woodbury campus in Burbank last week and continues through Feb. 23. Hanging on the walls and on racks of the Boardroom Gallery are ties that are wide, narrow, silk, rayon, cotton, leather, plastic, striped, polka-dotted, lurid, plain, hand-painted, pictorial, plywood or veneer.

“This one is a real prize,” said Vilma Matchette as she pointed out the veneer, look-of-real-wood tie that was loaned for the exhibition. “It shows the lengths people have gone to put their own individual stamp on an everyday clothing item.”

Matchette, a clothing collector and designer who has been gathering ties for several years for the exhibit, is the curator of “The Humble Tie.” She specializes in collecting and exhibiting what others think is mundane--the last exhibit she curated at Woodbury featured aprons.

“A few years ago Vilma and I sat down and talked about what we should be saving from the 20th Century,” said Utterbach, who chairs the university’s fashion design department. “Menswear has been particularly neglected.”

The collection they gathered for the show begins with the 1940s, a particularly good time for ties even though fabrics were restricted during wartime. “The silk was going to parachutes for the war effort and so many of the ties were made of rayon, which gave them a softer feel,” said Matchette. “They had a limited color range because many of the dyes were also going to the military, but they did a lot with what they had.”

Commercially produced, hand-painted ties were in vogue then. Matchette picked up one with a sedate, abstract design on a maroon background. It was sold, according to the tag on the back, at a men’s store in Independence, Mo. “I would guess that the hand-painted ties were a reaction to the limitations in color,” she said. “They added a bit of excitement.”

The ties of Edward Maeder, curator of costumes and textiles at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, could never be accused of being dull. He loaned about 15 from his personal collection for the Woodbury show, including those made of wood and leather. Maeder has never been reticent about expressing his individuality. “For a long while I carried around a table leg everywhere,” he said of his college years, with a laugh. “I took it to class, I took it with me on dates. It made me happy.”

It was while he was a theater major at the University of Wisconsin in the 1960s that he began to search out vintage ties in thrift stores and study why they had become a staple in menswear. “When you have the two edges of the suit front and the tie in the middle, it creates a strong vertical field,” Maeder said. “That creates a slender, upward motion. It makes people look taller and thinner.”

Among the most impressive ties he loaned are those printed with a photographic process to show woodsy scenes, golfers and Old Faithful erupting. He also sent a tie made out of photographic celluloid film that is sold in Hollywood gift shops. It has pictures of actresses from vintage movies printed on every frame.

“I wore that one in the Vatican when I gave a paper there,” Maeder said, adding that he didn’t wear it to make any kind of a statement. “I just felt like it that day,” he said. “I have a lot of fun with my ties.”

While many men will probably never wear ties as flamboyant as Maeder’s, Utterbach believes that in the last year or so, men have become more expressive with neckwear. “About a month ago I walked into the tie department at a Robinson’s and there was just table after table of the most colorful, luxurious ties,” she said. “It was like stepping into Monet’s garden in Giverny.”

The reason behind the renaissance in ties, however, is a serious one. The irony is that when times get bad, ties get more beautiful.

“The ties out today hearken back to the ‘40s, which was also a time of emotional unrest and uncertainty,” Utterbach said. “It was a time when people felt they didn’t have much control over the world.

“But they could control the way they dressed. They could at least make a personal statement through what they wore, even if it was with something as simple as a tie. It was a way of expressing themselves.

“It was almost as if they were saying, ‘This might be our swan song, but I’m going out with a bit of color.’ ”

“The Humble Tie” exhibit will be at the Boardroom Gallery of Woodbury University, 7500 Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank, through Feb. 23. The gallery is open from noon to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Admission is free. For information, call (818) 767-0888.