The suit is the core element of the classic male wardrobe. It is the fountain from which all other garments flow. Its fall from ubiquity has resulted in a rarity of helpful knowledge pertaining to effective suit wearing. Amongst the knowledge lost was that of proper accessorization. The items one pairs with a suit can make or break and outfit. More often then not they break it. This series is dedicated to helping men choose additional garments that elevate rather than detract from their suit-wearing experience.
On Ties
I love ties. They are a strong contender in the running for my favorite accessory. Ties, worn properly, fill in the space created by a suit jacket, add contrast in color and texture, and help create a sense of depth, all of which frame the wearers’s face and accentuate his proportions. A confidently appointed tie bestows a certain panache which no other accessory has managed to provide thusfar. Below are three simple necktie rules that will elevate your suit-wearing experience at least three fold, if not seven fold (horrible tie pun, you should propably stop reading after that).
Always wear a tie . . . when wearing a suit (in case a reminder is in order for anyone, a suit consists of a coat and trousers cut from the same piece of cloth, in other words, every physical characteristic of the fabric of the top and bottom is identical). Unlike a sport coat and odd trouser combination, a suit alone is rather monotone. Even if that tone is somewhat loud, a contrasting shirt is never enough to break up the continuity of fabric from shoulder to ankle in a satisfactory way. A suit without a tie is like a
Natural Fibers, Natural Fibers, Natural Fibers. Your ties, like nearly everything else, must be composed of natural fibers. Polyester takes special pleasure in ruining men’s neckwear. Polyester ties can be spotted from miles away for their plastic sheen and inability to hold a shapely knot. If all you have are poly ties, go to your local thrift store immediately and pick up a couple of striped ties in silk. While silk is the standard tie material, examples in wool, linen, cotton, and blends of any of those, can be found and can be a great way to add texture to an outfit.
Against the Windsor knot. The full-sized “Windsor” knot needs to die, and those who propagate it ought to be jailed. There is no face shape that it will flatter, and no collar exists that is so wide as to require a Windsor knot to “fill in the space” between the points. The Duke of Windsor, the man from whom the Windsor knot steals it name, never wore such a knot. He was a four-in-hand man himself, and while his ties had thick interlinings, and his knots erred on the side of loose nonchalance, never did he wear a tie knot as clunky and inelegant as the modern imposter.
A four-in-hand knot will serve any man well for the rest of his tie-wearing days. There are perhaps two other tie knots that are occasionally acceptable, but we’ll save them for a later date. The beauty of the four-in-hand lies in its sculptability and asymmetry. A properly tied four-in-hand is wide where it meets the shirt collar and slim where the tie blades protrude from the knot. If tied to meet the collar firmly, the knot will exhibit a slight off-center lean as it tapers, and will protrude slight forwards. These features add depth and interest to the front of an outfit.
Those are the hard and fast rules one should stick to when wearing a tie. Beyond that, the rest is up to the wearer. The function of a tie is purely aesthetic, so it ought to be worn so that it fulfills that function easily, or else why wear it? However, within reason, one mustn’t be too fussy about things like length or rear blade position. I am quite fond of leaving the rear blade slightly longer so that it protrudes an inch or two from beneath the front blade. While something of a trend, it is a good trend that fits neatly into the Brummellian precedent of spending hours on your neckwear to make it look as though you spent no time at all. One can just as easily, tuck the entire tie into one’s trousers as I have done here, or combine the tuck with the extended rear blade as à la Gianni Agnelli.
Ties don’t take themselves too seriously, how could a small, patterned, slice of fabric dangling two feet from someone’s neck? In that spirit, stick to the basics, perfect the knot, and have fun with the rest.
