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.
