HOUSTON – KPRC 2 reporter Bill Spencer does not have a wardrobe malfunction -- his ties were cut for a reason.
And no, it’s not because he had to jump out of a vehicle like Bond and had to slice his tie in two. No, it’s because the veteran reporter has the fashion sense of Bond and has always wanted to look the fashionable part.
In an interview last week, Spencer explained his ties are often not the right look for the times, but he’s hacked the fashion system.
“Basically a lot of these ties are like 15, 18 years old and years ago, when I was working in Detroit, you know, wider ties were in fashion, that was what the style was. You know, big knot, big full, rich-looking tie, and a lot of my ties were not that wide, so to make them look wider – instead of buying all new ties – I’m not going to do that -- I would tie them very close to the widest part of the tie,” he explained. “In other words, shorten this part up here, well, that would leave this long tail, the back part of the tie would be hanging down by my thighs, you know down here so it looks ridiculous, so I cut those things off, so I can’t have that – I have to cut this off, hanging below my suit jacket, it looks nutty.”
“... So I cut all of them. It’s like, 50 ties that I did this to,” Spencer continued. “And now, the style is back to very thin ties so now when I try to tie that tie the way it’s supposed to look, there’s no little tail left at all because I cut it off. So I got this little stub sticking up here some place. I can still tie it, but if you look behind the tie, it looks ridiculous.”
Spencer added that his mother, Jane Foster, was a fashion model and fashion remains an important part of his life.
“She was in the Miss America pageant, she was Miss Michigan, and she became a fashion model so I grew up surrounded by fashion, that was my mom’s life,” Spencer said. “... My whole life I’ve been around fashion and, you know, I care about it. I care about the way I look and so now I have these crazy-looking ties. I’m not going to throw them away though because I still like them. That’s why I cut the end of my ties off. Isn’t that the stupidest thing you ever heard?”
No, Bill, it’s not the stupidest thing we’ve ever heard. Being friendly to the environment by not throwing out your things each time the fashions change is a great thing to do. And of course, it’s only a matter of time before the wide tie look is back in style... we know you’ll be ready.
Thanks for giving us a peek into your world and your wardrobe. Keep up the snappy dressing. By the way, your mom was just stunning.