A TIE

A tie (British English) or necktie (American English) is a long piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck or shoulders, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat.

Variants include the ascot tie, bow tie, bolo tie, zipper tie and the clip-on tie. The modern necktie, ascot, and bow tie are descended from the cravat.

Neck ties are generally unsized, but may be available in a longer size. Men and boys wear neckties as part of regular office attire or formal wear.

Neckties can also be worn as part of a uniform (e.g. military, school and waitstaff), whereas some choose to wear them as everyday clothing attire.

Neckties are traditionally worn with the top shirt button fastened, and the tie knot resting comfortably between the collar points.

However, it has become common in recent times for neckties to be worn as a casual item, tied loosely around the neck, nearly always with one or several buttons unfastened.

History

There is an older history of neckwear worn by soldiers (Chinese and Roman), whether as part of a uniform or as an emblem of belonging to a particular group, and some form of neckwear other than the outdoor scarf can be traced intermittently through the centuries.

The modern necktie taken up, then spread by, Western Europe traces back to the time of Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) when Croatian mercenaries from the Croatian Military Frontier in French service, wearing their traditional small, knotted neckerchiefs, aroused the interest of the Parisians.

Due to the slight difference between the Croatian word for Croats, Hrvati, and the French word, Croates, the garment gained the name “cravat”.

The new article of clothing started a fashion craze in Europe where both men and women wore pieces of fabric around their necks. In the late 17th century, the men wore lace cravats that took a large amount of time and effort to arrange.

These cravats were often tied in place by cravat strings, arranged neatly and tied in a bow. Therefore the international necktie day is celebrated on October 18 in Croatia and in various towns throughout the world, e.g. in Dublin, Tübingen, Como, Tokyo, Sydney and other towns.

Types

Cravat

Four-in-hand

Six- and seven-fold ties

Clip-on tie

Types of knots

There are four main knots used to knot neckties. In rising order of difficulty, they are:

four-in-hand knot. The four-in-hand knot may be the most common.

Pratt knot (the Shelby knot)

half-Windsor knot Windsor knot (also erroneously called the “double-Windsor” or, redundantly, “full Windsor”).

The Windsor knot is the thickest knot of the four, since its tying has the most steps.