Necktie

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The necktie (or tie) is a long piece of either woven or knitted cloth worn around the neck, under the shirt collar, and knotted at the throat, with its blades resting on the shirt front, covering the buttons. The modern necktie, ascot, and bow tie, descend from the cravat; mainly, men wear neckties as regular office attire, formal wear, or uniform. Neckties are also worn by women as part of a uniform (e.g. military, school) but are not typical women's wear in other contexts.

Contents 1 Cravat 2 Necktie variants 2.1 Four-in-hand 2.1.1 Seven-fold tie 2.2 Clip-on tie 3 Ties as signs of membership 4 Ties and associated health issues 5 Anti-tie sentiment 6 Designers of Neckties 7 See also 8 References 9 External links 9.1 External links: How to tie a tie

Cravat

The cravat neckband is the forerunner of the modern, tailored necktie. From the end of the 16th century, the term "band" applied to any long-strip neckcloth that was not a "ruff"; the ruff — a starched, pleated white linen strip — started its fashion career earlier in the 16th century as a neckcloth (readily changeable, to minimize the soiling of a doublet), or as a bib, or as a napkin. A "band" could indicate either a plain, attached shirt collar or a detachable "falling band" that draped over the doublet collar.

The modern cravat originated in the 1630s; like most men's fashions between the 17th century and World War I, it was of military origin. In the reign of Louis XIII of France, Croatian mercenaries were enlisted to a regiment supporting the King and Cardinal Richelieu against the Duc de Guise and the Queen Mother, Marie de Medici. The traditional Croat military kit aroused Parisian curiosity in, and about, the unusual, picturesque scarves distinctively knotted at their necks; the cloths used ranged from the coarse-finish cloth of enlisted soldiers, to the fine linens and silks of the officers. The sartorial word "cravat" derives from the French cravate, a corrupt French pronunciation of "Croat" — Croatian "Hrvat" — however, evidence shows the word used in 14th century France and in 16th century Italy. French writer Eustache Deschamps (c. 1340–1407), wrote a ballad containing the phrase: "faites restraindre sa cravate" ("pull his cravat tighter").

Considering the interdependence of many European regions (particularly the French) with the Venetian Empire, which occupied most of Croatia's coast, and the word's uncertain philologic origin, the new male neckdress was known as a cravate; the French readily surrendered old-fashioned starched linen ruffs to adopt the new-fashion, loose linen and muslin cravates with the broad, laced edges of the military version, while a gentleman's cravat could be of fine lace, e.g. the sculptor Grinling Gibbons carved a realistic cravat in white limewood.

On returning to England from exile, in 1660, Charles II imported with him the latest, new word in fashion: "A cravatte is another kind of adornment for the neck being nothing else but a long towel put about the Collar, and so tyed before with a Bow Knott; this is the original of all such Wearings; but now by the Art and Inventions of the seamsters, there is so many new ways of making them, that it would be a task to name, much more to describe them". (Randle Holme, Academy of Armory and Blazon, 1688.)

During the wars of Louis XIV of 1689–1697, except for court, the flowing cravat was replaced with the more current and equally military "Steinkirk", named after the Battle of Steenkerque in 1692. The Steinkirk was a long, narrow, plain or lightly trimmed neckcloth worn with military dress, wrapped once about the neck in a loose knot, with the lace of fringed ends twisted together and tucked out of the way into a button-hole, either of the coat or the waistcoat. The steinkirk was popular with men and women until the 1720s.

The macaronis reintroduced the flowing cravat in the 1770s, and the manner of a man's knotting it became indicative of his taste and style, to the extent that after the Battle of Waterloo (1815) the cravat, itself, was referred to as a "tie".

Necktie variants

The cravat also originated these variants, still worn today:

• 19th century: The Bow tie; the cravat's changing to the bow was gradual; the evolutionary line is difficult to draw.
• 1850s: The Four-in-hand, see below; a.k.a. the "long tie"; what people mean by "tie".
• 1880s: The Ascot tie.
• 1940s: The Bola tie (a.k.a. string tie or bolo tie); a necktie from the Southwest United States consisting of a cord with a clasp.
• Clip-on tie: see Clip-on tie

Four-in-hand

Main article: Four-in-hand knot

The four-in-hand necktie was fashionable in Britain in the 1850s. Early neckties were simple, rectangular cloth strips cut on the square, with square ends. The term "four-in-hand" originally described a carriage with four horses and a driver; later, it also was the name of a London gentlemen's club. Some etymologic reports are that carriage drivers knotted their reins with a four-in-hand knot (see below), whilst others claim the carriage drivers wore their scarves knotted 'four-in-hand', but, most likely, members of the club began wearing their neckties so knotted, thus making it fashionable. In the latter half of the 19th century, the four-in-hand knot and the four-in-hand necktie were synonymous. As fashion changed from stiff shirt collars to soft, turned-down collars, the four-in-hand necktie knot gained popularity; its sartorial dominance rendered the term "four-in-hand" redundant usage, shortened "long tie" and "tie".

In 1926, Jesse Langsdorf from New York introduced ties cut on the bias (US) or cross-grain (UK), allowing the tie to evenly fall from the knot without twisting; this also caused any woven pattern such as stripes to appear diagonally across the tie.

There are four main knots used to knot neckties. The simplest, the four-in-hand knot, probably is used by the majority of wearers. The others (in order of difficulty) are the Pratt knot (the Shelby knot), the half-Windsor knot, and the Windsor knot (also erroneously called the "double-Windsor"). The Windsor knot is the thickest knot of the four, since its tying has the most steps. The Windsor knot is named after the Duke of Windsor, although neither its inventor nor user. The Duke did favour a voluminous knot, however he achieved such by having neckties specially made of thicker cloths. In the late 1990s, two researchers, Thomas Fink and Yong Mao of Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory, used mathematical modelling to discovered that eighty-five (85) knots (within the constraints of wearing a necktie) are possible with a conventional tie.^[1] They found that in addition to the four well-known knots, six other knots have aesthetically pleasing results.

Today, four-in-hand ties are part of men's formal clothing in both Western and non-Western societies, particularly for business. They have also found their way to the wardrobes of trail-blazing, fashionable women.

Four-in-hand ties are generally made from silk, cotton, polyester or, somewhat uncommonly nowadays, wool. They appear in a very wide variety of colours and patterns, notably striped (often diagonally), club ties (often with a small motif repeated regularly all over the tie) and solids. "Novelty ties" featuring icons from popular culture (such as cartoons, actors, holiday images), sometimes with flashing lights, have been quite prevalent since the 1990s, as have paisley ties.

Seven-fold tie

The seven-fold four-in-hand necktie is a complex necktie construction method. The method was almost forgotten, but revived after the austerity of the Great Depression. These ties, although they seldom carry a designer label, often sell for a minimum of $160 USD.

The seven-fold necktie construction method is an old method of tie construction The construction requires an hour or more to produce a necktie, whereas a typical department store tie can require five minutes. A square yard of silk (usually two or more pieces sewn together) is folded to seven sections of silk between the folds. The resulting seven-fold four-in-hand necktie is distinctive.

The seven-fold tie is durable and luxurious; its weight and body derive exclusively from the layering of silk. This gives the necktie a distinguishable, consistent, and noticeable dimple, which is the crease that forms just below the knot when formed a certain way.

In Italy a lined six-fold tie is often incorrectly called a seven-fold tie. However, a lined six-fold tie is a very beautiful and popular tie construction which will wrinkle less than an unlined seven-fold tie.

Clip-on tie

Main article: Clip-on tie

The clip-on necktie is permanently knotted bow tie or four-in-hand style affixed with a metal clip to the front of the shirt collar. This 20th-century innovation is stylistically inferior, but practical^{[citation needed]} for wear in occupations (e.g., law enforcement, service clerks, etc.) where a proper necktie could pose a choking risk in the course of doing his or her job.

Ties as signs of membership

The use of coloured and patterned neckties indicating the wearer's membership in a club, military regiment, school, et cetera, dates only from late-nineteenth century England. The first, definite occurrence was in 1880, when Exeter College, Oxford rowers took the College-colour ribbons from their straw boaters and wore them as neckties (knotted four-in-hand), and then went on to order a proper set of ties in the same colours, thus creating the first example of a college necktie.

Soon other colleges followed suit, as well as schools, universities, and clubs. At about the same time, the British military moved from dressing in brightly and distinctively coloured uniforms to subdued and discreet uniforms, and they used neckties to retain regimental colours.

The most common pattern for such ties was, and remains, diagonal stripes of alternating colours (running down the tie from the left in the UK and most of Europe, and running down from the right in the U.S.). A frequent alternative is either a single emblem or a crest centred and placed where a tie pin normally would be, or a repeated pattern of such motifs. Sometimes, both types are used by an organisation, either simply to offer a choice or to indicate a distinction among and levels of membership. Occasionally, a hybrid design is used, in which alternating stripes of colour are overlaid with repeated motif pattern.

Many British schools use variations on their basic necktie to indicate the wearer's age, house, status (e.g. prefect), or participation in competition (especially sports). Usually, the Old Boys and Girls (alumni) wear a different design.

In the late 1970s, at the time of the Iranian Islamic Revolution, the mainstream U.S. press labelled Islamic fundamentalist hardline revolutionaries "turbans", and the modernist moderates "neckties". Culturally, in theocratic Iran, neckties have been denounced as decadent, un-Islamic, and symbolic of the Western oppression. Since then, most Iranian men have worn long-sleeved shirts with collars, but not neckties.

Ties and associated health issues

The debate between proponents and opponents of the wearing of neckties generally centre on issues of conformity, expectation, and expression. Frank Lloyd Wright said of great architecture (himself quoting another great architect, Louis Sullivan, who was also his mentor), "Form follows function". Applied to fashion, the tie's function as decoration stands criticised by the same principle. Arizona State University recently passed a resolution (2005) to have no discrimination based upon gender preferences, including cross-gender choices. However, as it takes some time to change policies and sentiments, they retained a rule requiring all men to wear ties and all women to wear hose and heels in the Office of the President for any ambassadorship visits or official meetings. Some men have been turned down for employment and even fired with or without explanation after appearing without the "expected" tie.

Opponents of necktie wearing have cited risks associated with the wearing of neckties as an argument for discontinuing the practice. These risks have primarily involved entanglement, infection, and vascular constriction. The risk of entanglement is generally well understood by people working around machinery or in situations where person-to-person confrontation may occur (e.g., police and prison personnel, and in certain medical fields).^[2] The answer is generally to avoid wearing ties, or use the clip-on variety which detach from the wearer when grabbed. The risk of cross-infection of patients by doctors wearing ties is being treated seriously by hospitals,^[3] it being noted that ties are cleaned less often than most items of clothing and can carry bacteria. Doctors routinely lean across patients and ties frequently come into contact with patients, therefore bow ties have traditionally been popular with doctors. The risk of vascular constriction, in cases where ties are worn with over-tight collars, has been noted. Studies have shown an increase in intra-ocular pressure in these cases which can worsen the condition of people with already weakened retinas.^[4] People with glaucoma should exercise special care. In all cases sensible precautions can mitigate these risks; the danger lies in lack of awareness of the risks. Paramedics performing basic life support remove the tie from a victim as one of the very first steps when a victim is unconscious or has difficulty breathing to ensure it does not compromise the airway.

Anti-tie sentiment

Removing the necktie as a social and sartorial business requirement (and sometimes forbidding it) is a modern trend historians attribute to the rise of 1960s proletarian popular culture; common as late as 1966, and, in the 1967—69 interregnum, the necktie fell out of fashion most everywhere, except where required socially and sartorialy. Following its resurgence in the 1980s, in the 1990s, Internet-based (i.e. dot-com) companies, most of whose workers did not so dress when dealing with clients, since said business's public image solely was the website rather than personal meetings. All that a contemporary variation on the liberal sentiment of social–sartorial independence remaining from the 1960s, i.e. a new way of doing things.

Large teams of telephone-salespeople also were increasing as pools of workers. Many such men and women were required to wear neckties, because it was perceived as improving work attitudes, morale, and sales. Casual Fridays became a very popular tradition in that time, in which employees were not required to wear ties on Fridays, and then — increasingly — on other, announced, special days. Some businesses extended casual-dress days to Thursday, and even Wednesday; others required neckties only on Monday (to start the work week). Eric Crown, CEO of Insight Direct, which was beginning to effect substantial on-line sales via website, along with more than $1 billion yearly dollars telephone sales, announced one morning, in 1995, that none of its 800 telephone salesmen would any longer be required to wear a necktie. After studying casual-dress day sales patterns, management announced the decision by having each salesman's necktie cut in half with scissors, by the receptionist, as they entered the workplace lobby.^{[citation needed]}

Formally dressed men in Israel wear a jacket, but not a necktie^{[citation needed]}; a notable exception was former prime minister Begin, who always wore a tie.

Designers of Neckties

Most designer labels release a collection of neckwear each season, however some popular UK designers are renowned for their neckties. These include; Turnbull & Asser, Paul Smith, Duchamp, Ted Baker, Drake's of London, and Thomas Pink. Specialist tie designers include KJ Beckett who offer unique silk knitted ties.

Based in the US, Carlo Franco offer seven fold silk ties, which, unlike most silk neck ties, use only silk and no separate inner lining.

Within the US many of the designers mentioned above are available from Neiman Marcus. Within the UK silk neck ties are available from John Lewis Partnership, House of Fraser, Selfridges, Liberty of London, Harrods and many other menswear stores.

Many clubs, associations, schools, churches and businesses will have custom woven ties manufactured in specific colors, patterns and designs to signify membership and are available in Europe, US and Canada from companies like Bowler & Blake.

There are lesser known British tie designers that produce uniquely original styles. Following in the footsteps of The old Oxford School Tie of 1800 and the original designer tie, which was first created by Jean Patou in the 1920's. Timothy Everest architect of the new bespoke tailoring movement and a host of other designers like Ian Flaherty, Feraud, Shane McCoubrey, Cressida Bell and Neil Bottle have joined Patrick McMurray to keep old styles going. [1]The history of ties keeps building day by day. Contemporary designers that side step tradition will go down in history, just like Jessie Langsdor did in the 1920's. He made ties from three seperate pieces of silk: the blade, the gussett and the under-end, cut at 45 degrees on the bias and sewn together they never twist. Jesssie patented the idea and sold back to the world.

See also

• Tie bar
• Bolo tie
• Paisley design found on ties
• Claus von Amsberg and the "Declaration of the Tie"
• Tie press - A device used to combat creasing in ties without heat-related damage.
• History of Western fashion series
• Category:Necktie knots

References

1. ^ Fink, Thomas; Yong Mao [October 3, 2000] (November 5, 2001). The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie: the science and aesthetics of tie knots, 1st Paperback edition, New York, NY: HarperCollins. ISBN 1-84115-568-3 LCCN 00-41437--for original hardcover edition. 
2. ^ Kuhn, W. (1999 January). ""Violence in the emergency department: Managing aggressive patients in a high-stress environment"". Postgraduate Medicine 105 (1): 143–148. PubMed. Retrieved on 2006-06-08. 
3. ^ Nurkin, Steven; Carl Urban, Ed Mangini, Norielle Mariano, Louise Grenner, James Maurer, Edmond Sabo, James Rahal (May 2004). ""Is the Clinicians' Necktie a Potential Fomite for Hospital Acquired Infections?"". Paper presented at the 104th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology May 23–May 27 2004, New Orleans, Louisiana: p. 204. 
4. ^ Teng, C; R Gurses-Ozden, J M Liebmann, C Tello, and R Ritch (August 2003). ""Effect of a tight necktie on intraocular pressure"". British Journal of Ophthalmology 87 (8): 946–948. DOI:10.1136/bjo.87.8.946. Retrieved on 2006-06-08. 

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