Ties. They can look flashy, fashionable and snappy, or they can bring back visions of boardrooms, the office, school or military dress-uniforms. They can be stylish and colourful, or they can be choking and restrictive, or possibly inducive of autoerotic asphyxiation…which might not be a bad thing. But I digress; fewer articles of clothing are more polarising to men other than whether you would, do, would not, or do not, choose to wear a tie.

Some people wear ties on a regular basis as part of a uniform. Some men wear ties because they’re part of their personal style or ‘look’. Personally, I’m in the camp of the latter. I started regularly wearing ties again about two years ago, and I’m still wearing them regularly today. In fact, I’m wearing one right now as I type this.

But how long have men been putting things around their necks? Where did they come from? Why on earth would someone do this?

The History of Neckwear

People have been putting on neckcloths for centuries. The modern necktie and its cousin, the bowtie, the two most common neck-coverings today, were descendants of one of the most common neck-coverings of the 17th century – the Cravat.

The cravat, a wide, scarf-like neck-cloth tied loosely around the throat, was the neck-covering of choice from the 1600s up to the 1800s. Some people who want a more loose and loungey, casual look in their neckwear still wear cravats, and their cousins, the neckerchieves, today. The word ‘cravat’ came from the French  ‘cravate’, which was a corruption of the word ‘Croat’, from the country of…Croatia, where the cravat was born in the 1630s.

The original purpose of these neck-coverings and cloths (be they cravats, kerchiefs or ties), was actually to hold the shirtfront shut, and to stop wind and cold air from blowing down into your clothes and onto your chest…it was a comfort thing.

The Birth of the Tie

By the mid-1800s, the cravat, a staple of men’s wardrobes for the past two centuries, was beginning to get a bit raggedy around the edges. As with a lot of other elements of men’s clothing at the time, people started wanting simpler, better-fitting, less flamboyant clothing. The cravat was being seen as a relic of the Regency era of the 1810s and it was quickly becoming sooo last century.

So the modern necktie was born. While the cravat and the neckerchief never really went away, by the last quarter of the 1800s, they were beginning to do serious battle with the new kid on the block – the necktie.

The necktie was popular for a number of reasons.

– The cravat is generally tied loosely and floppily around the throat. This was fine…so long as you didn’t have to keep tightening it up all the time. In the increasingly mechanised world of the late 1800s, the loose, wavy cravat was a liability. If it unluckily unravelled over a piece of whirring machinery, it could strangle the wearer to death! The necktie was done up so that it provided a tighter, safer knot.

– The necktie was simpler and didn’t take up so much real-estate. Cravats are like icebergs – three quarters of the cloth is stuffed down your shirtfront. And cravats are big, bulky things – that leads to a lot of excess material. Neckties were slim and simple, without wasted fabric.

– The necktie was easier to put on. A cravat had a lot of fabric and tying one could be frustrating. A necktie was thinner and had less to fuss around with, making it faster and more convenient to tie.

Tie Knots

There’s a multitude of tie-knots out there. According to author Thomas Fink, who did a study of the necktie, there are no fewer than 85 ways to tie a necktie. Screw that! I’m only going to talk about two knots.

Not all shirts are the same and not all collars are the same. So you should always know at least two tie-knots. One of the most common knots is the Four-in-Hand.

Four-in-Hand Knot

The four-in-hand knot is probably the simplest knot ever. Supposedly, it was named after coachmen, who would tie up the reins of their carriage-horses in a similar way, to stop them from tangling up during long drives. If you’ve never tied a tie and you really need to know how, this is the fastest way:

1. The tie’s draped around the popped-up collar and over your shoulders, with the right side longer than the left (and with the wider side on the right).

2. The right side of the tie is crossed over the front of the left and then pulled behind it to the right.

3. Then the right side of the tie is crossed over the left side again.

4. Then, it’s pulled up through the gap below your neck.

5. Using your fingers, wriggle a hole through the last of the two loops that you made around the skinnier portion of the tie.

6. Stuff the wide end of the tie down through that new hole you wiggled open with your fingers. Pull it down so that it’s nice and tight.

7. Close the gap below your neck by pulling on the short end of the tie to draw the knot up.

Note: As this is the knot that generally uses the least amount of material, you might end up with a tie that hangs down too low. If it does, untie and do it again. Simply repeat step 3 two or three more times. This uses up the extra fabric so that you don’t have so much left over when the knot’s done up.

The four-in-hand knot is best used with shirts with spearpoint collars, that leave only a small space between the ends of the collar. This is because the knot that results from tying a tie in this fasion is rather long and skinny (unless you wrapped the tie around the knot a few more times to use up the extra fabric like I mentioned up above).

The Windsor Knots

The knots which are collectively called the Windsor knots, go by many names. But the general style was named after the dapper Duke of Windsor (who caused a scandal in 1936 when he abdicated the British throne). However, the knot itself was actually invented by his father (King George V), who had a reputation of being a strict dresscode adherent.

Windsor knots are also called Full Windsors, Double Windsors and Half-Windsors.

What the hell is the difference?

Full Windsor and Double Windsor are the same thing.

Half-Windsor is…a…half-Windsor.

So how do you tie one?

The Windsor-knot is famous, not only because of its royal connections, but because it’s a fat, chunky knot with a lot of symmetry. Here’s how you do one up.

1. Drape your tie over your shoulders and around your popped-up collar. Longer, wider side on the right, skinnier and shorter side on your left.

2. Cross the long side over the short side (left).

3. Loop the long side behind, and then up, through the gap below your neck, and outwards. Then, pull down. The front of the wider end of the tie should now be hanging down, on your left-hand side.

4. Cross the wide side of the tie back behind the knot again, but this time, pull it right across to the right side of your body.

5. Pull it up and stick it through the gap below your neck, keeping to the right side, this time. Pull it down. This is similar to step 3, only in reverse and on the other side of the knot. In this case, the BACK side of the wide end of the tie should be facing outwards.

6. Draw the wide end of the tie across the front of the knot to the left, and then poke it through the gap below your neck from behind, again (as in step 3).

7. Toss the wide end of the tie back over your left shoulder. Stick your finger down the front of the knot to make a hole there. Stuff the rest of the wide end of your tie down that hole and pull tight.

8. Pull the shorter, back end of the tie down to close the knot.

If you’ve done it right, then you should have a fat, triangular knot. Also, there should be a little dimple in your tie just below the knot – a distinctive trademark of a Windsor knot.

Alright. You’ve just done a Full or Double Windsor knot. Again, as with the four-in-hand knot, if you’ve left with too much fabric, undo the tie, readjust and tie again, but repeating steps 3 and 5 one or two more times to use up the extra fabric to make the finished length more correct.

So how do you do a Half-Windsor knot?

Easy. Just do half the steps. That’s why it’s called a Half-Windsor!

Do steps 1-3. Then instead of doing step 4 (bringing the tie around the back of the knot to the front to the right and stuffing it down the neck-gap again), simply bring it around the back, all the way around the front and to the back again (in a loop), then do steps 3, 7 and 8. Done.

The Four-in-Hand, the Full/Double and Half-Windsor knots are the most commonly-used tie-knots. The Windsor knots, because of their chunkier results, are best tied on shirts with spread collars, where a knot that takes up a lot of shirt real-estate is preferrable.

The Bowtie

Like the necktie, the bowtie is descendant from the granddaddy of all neck-cloths, the cravat. Okay. I won’t go into all that again.

Doing up a necktie is easy. Most boys learn how to do one up for school uniforms and the like. But a bowtie can be daunting and scary and intimidating!

It isn’t.

Bowties carry certain connotations – You’re a professor, banker, teacher, doctor, Hercule Poirot, or if you wear thick-rimmed glasses, have buck-teeth and wear a shortsleeved shirt – a nerd. But bowties can also carry a connotation of skill…mostly because they’re perceived as being impossible to tie.

Agatha Christie’s dandy Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot (portrayed by David Suchet), with his trademark bowtie

They’re not.

And this is how you do it.

I’ll be honest. There are a bazillion video-tutorials on YouTube that show you how to do up a bowtie. And you could disregard everything here that’s to come, and just go and watch one of those. But one reason why there’s so many of those videos is because they all show you how to tie a bowtie…but they don’t tell you. “You do this, then this, then this, then this, then this…voila!”

Yeah. Slow down. The video’s over in two minutes and you’re standing there with a piece of crap tied around your neck and your big fancy Black-Tie dinner is in half an hour. You’re screwed.

Tying a bowtie is easy – I got it after just three attempts. If a doofus like me can do it, anyone can. Here’s how:

1. Pop up your collar.

2. Adjust the length of your tie. Quality bowties have a cinch or an adjuster on them. Use this to get the length of the tie right.

How long does the tie have to be? Well, if it’s draped over your chest and around your neck, the left end of the tie should be at your nipple or at the top of your sternum. The right end should be about an inch or so longer than that. Adjust the tie’s length so that this is achieved (the short end of the tie is always on the left, the long side is on the right). Go ahead. I’ll wait…

3. Okay, done that? Now, to tie stuff up. Cross the long end of the tie over the short end (to the left). Stick the long end up behind the knot and pull up, firmly. The long end of the tie is now on your left shoulder and it should’ve looped around there from behind the left part of the tie. Yes? Good. Leave it there.

4. The other half of the tie is now pointing straight down. It should be shaped like a fish, with the tail pointing down and the head pointing up. Fold the tie in half across the middle of the head. Then twist this part of the tie to the left. You should have a nice, bowtie-looking shape under your chin if you’re looking in the mirror.

5. Keeping this position, flop the other part of the tie (on your shoulder) down over the middle of this bowtie shape.

6. Pinch the head and tail of the fishy bow which you created in step 4, together, and pull outwards. You’ll now have two holes. One between your neck and the tie itself, and one smaller one in front of that, just big enough for your finger to poke through.

7. The long half of your bowtie is now hanging down just like the other half was, with the fishtail pointing down and the head pointing up. Do as you did with the other half of the tie – Fold the head in half and twist it to the left.

8. Now for the tricky bit. Remember that little hole I mentioned at the end of step 6? You’re now gonna shove the folded head of your other fishy through that hole. I find it helps to fold the fish again, lengthwise, to fit it through here.

9. Done that? Now you should have:

Front bow – folded side on the left. Fishtail on the right.
Back bow – Folded side on the right. Fishtail on the left.

During this procedure, the middle of your bowtie knot might become a bit twisted. You can untwist it slightly to make it a little neater.

Now, to tighten and neaten.

Pull on the two fishheads to tighten the knot, and on the two tails to loosen the knot. Keeping pulling on the heads and the tails until symmetry and a comfortable tightness has been attained. Straighten out the fish-heads (especially the inner right one, which may have become a little crinkled in the exercise), and you’ve got a perfect bowtie!

Now you’re ready for that school formal or prom or that Black Tie family reunion or that fancy dress party which you’re attending as a Computer Nerd.

To undo the tie later, simply pull on the fishtails, and the whole thing just comes apart.

Note: Don’t worry if the tie isn’t absolutely super-duper crazy mega-perfect. No self-tied bowtie ever is. But you can try to get close.