Necktie
A necktie – also called a long tie or, more usually, simply a tie – is a cloth article of formal neckwear or office attire worn for decorative or symbolic purposes, knotted at the throat, resting under a folded shirt collar, and usually draped down the chest. On rare occasions neckties are worn above a winged shirt collar. Neckties are usually paired with collared dress shirts under suit jackets or blazers, but have often been seen with other articles, such as sport coats and v-neck sweaters. Neckties can also be part of a uniform, however, in occupations where manual labor is involved, the end of the necktie is often tucked into the button line front placket of a dress shirt, such as the dress uniform of the United States Marine Corps.
Neckties are reported by fashion historians to be descended from the Regency era double-ended cravat. Adult neckties are generally unsized and tapered along the length, but may be available in a longer sizes for taller people, designed to show just the wide end. Widths are usually matched to the width of a suit jacket lapel. Neckties are traditionally worn with the top shirt button fastened, and the tie knot resting between the collar points. Importance is given to the styling of the knot. In the late 1990s, Thomas Fink and Yong Mao of University of Cambridge mathematically determined 13 knots as "aesthetically" viable out of a possible total of 85, of which the commonest known are the four-in-hand, the Pratt, and the Windsor knots. The cut of the folded collar of the dress shirt is typically paired to the style of knot used. Neckties were originally considered "menswear", but are now considered unisex items in most Western cultures.
Necktie is also US slang term for a hangman's noose.
History
Origins
The necktie that spread from Europe traces back to Croatian mercenaries serving in France during the Thirty Years' War. These mercenaries from the Military Frontier, wearing their traditional small, knotted neckerchiefs, aroused the interest of the Parisians. Because of the difference between the Croatian word for Croats, Hrvati, and the French word, Croates, the garment gained the name cravat. Louis XIV began wearing a lace cravat around 1646 when he was seven and set the fashion for French nobility. From its introduction by the French king, men wore lace cravats and jabots — pleated, ruched, or frilled — which took a large amount of time and effort to arrange. This new article of clothing started a fashion craze in Europe; both men and women wore pieces of fabric around their necks. Jabots remain today as part of the dress code for legal practitioners in court and for formal academic wear. Cravats were often tied in place by cravat strings, arranged neatly and tied in a bow.International Necktie Day is celebrated on October 18 in Croatia and in various cities around the world, including in Dublin, Tübingen, Como, Tokyo, Sydney and other towns.
1710–1800: stocks, solitaires, neckcloths, cravats
In 1715, another kind of neckwear, called "stocks" made its appearance. The term originally referred to a leather collar, laced at the back, worn by soldiers to promote holding the head high in a military bearing. The leather stock also afforded some protection to the major blood vessels of the neck from saber or bayonet attacks. General Sherman is seen wearing a leather stock in several American Civil War-era photographs.Stock ties were initially just a small piece of muslin folded into a narrow band wound a few times around the shirt collar and secured from behind with a pin. At the time, it was fashionable for men to wear their hair long, past shoulder length with the ends tucked into a black silk bag worn at the nape of the neck. This was known as the bag-wig hairstyle, and the neckwear worn with it was the stock. The solitaire was a variation of the bag wig, which had matching ribbons stitched around the bag. After the stock was in place, the ribbons would be brought forward and tied in a large bow in front of the wearer.
In the late 18th century, a resurgence in fashion for cravats began attributed to foppish young Englishmen who returned from the Grand Tour of Europe bringing with them new ideas about fashion from Italy, who were pejoratively called macaronis from their taste for pasta, then little known in Britain — as mentioned in the song "Yankee Doodle". The French contemporaries of these macaronis were termed the 'petits-maîtres' and incroyables.
1800–1850: cravat, stocks, scarves, bandanas
At this time, there was also much interest in the way to tie a proper cravat and this led to a series of publications. This began in 1818 with the publication of Neckclothitania, a style manual that contained illustrated instructions on how to tie 14 different cravats. Soon after, the immense skill required to tie the cravat in certain styles quickly became a mark of a man's elegance and wealth. It was also the first book to use the word tie in association with neckwear.It was about this time that black stocks made their appearance. Their popularity eclipsed the white cravat, except for formal and evening wear. These remained popular through the 1850s. At this time, another form of neckwear worn was the scarf. This was where a neckerchief or bandana was held in place by slipping the ends through a finger or scarf ring at the neck instead of using a knot. This is the classic sailor neckwear and may have been adopted from them.
1860s–1920s: bow ties, scarf/neckerchief, the ascot, the long tie
With the Industrial Revolution, more people wanted neckwear that was easy to put on, was comfortable and would last an entire workday. Long ties were designed to be long, thin, and easy to knot, without accidentally coming undone. Academic tailors Castell & Son Limited, which opened in 1846 in Oxford, takes credit for creating the first modern style necktie in 1870 — the original form of design still worn by millions.In 1895, two years after his presidency ended, Benjamin Harrison became the first former US president portrayed wearing the modern long tie, and in 1903, Theodore Roosevelt became the first US president to wear the modern long tie in a presidential portrait while in office.
By this time, the sometimes complicated array of knots and styles of neckwear gave way to neckties and bow ties, the latter a much smaller, more convenient version of the cravat. Another type of neckwear, the ascot tie, was considered de rigueur for male guests at formal dinners and male spectators at races. These ascots had wide flaps that were crossed and pinned together on the chest.
1920s–1945
During the Interwar period ties were typically worn shorter than they are today. This was due, in part, to men at that time more commonly wearing trousers with a higher rise and waistcoats; i.e., ties could be shorter because trousers sat higher up and, at any rate, the tip of the tie was almost always concealed.File:Portrait of Thelonious Monk, Howard McGhee, Roy Eldridge, and Teddy Hill, Minton's Playhouse, New York, N.Y., ca. Sept. 1947.jpg|thumb|left|Jazz musicians Thelonious Monk, Howard McGhee, Roy Eldridge, and Teddy Hill, in front of Minton's Playhouse in New York City, wearing zoot suits with wide extravagant neckties in 1947
After the First World War, hand-painted ties became an accepted form of decoration in the US. The widths of some of these ties went up to. These loud, flamboyant ties – popularly paired with counter-culture over-sized zoot suits of hipsters in the jazz and bebop periods – and these sold very well through to the 1950s.
In 1922, a New York tie maker, Jesse Langsdorf, came up with a revolutionary method of cutting the fabric on the bias and sewing it in three segments. This technique greatly improved elasticity and facilitated the fabric's return to its original shape. It allowed the tie to evenly fall from the knot without twisting. Since then, the "Langsdorf" tie has been the standard form, due to being much easier to care for and giving less trouble in tying neatly. Yet another development during that time was the method used to secure the lining and interlining once the tie had been folded into shape.
1945–1995
Around 1944, ties started to become not only wider but even wilder. This was the beginning of what was later labeled the Bold Look: ties that reflected the returning GIs' desire to break with wartime uniformity. Widths reached, and designs included Art Deco, hunting scenes, scenic "photographs", tropical themes, and even girlie prints, though more traditional designs were also available. The typical length was.The Bold Look lasted until about 1951 when the "Mister T" look was introduced. The new style, characterized by tapered suits, slimmer lapels, and smaller hat brims, included thinner and not so wild ties. Tie widths slimmed to by 1953 and continued getting thinner up until the mid-1960s; length increased to about as men started wearing their trousers lower, closer to the hips. Through the 1950s, neckties remained somewhat colorful, yet more restrained than in the previous decade. Small geometric shapes were often employed against a solid background ; diagonal stripes were also popular. By the early 1960s, dark, solid ties became very common, with widths slimming down to as little as.
File:HH Polizeihauptmeister MZ.jpg|thumb|left|A policeman in Hamburg, Germany, wearing a necktie
The 1960s brought about an influx of pop art influenced designs. The first was designed by Michael Fish when he worked at Turnbull & Asser, and was introduced in Britain in 1965 — the term kipper tie was a pun on his name, as well as a reference to the triangular shape of the front of the tie. Ties became wider, returning to their width, sometimes with garish colors and designs. The exuberance of the styles of the late 1960s and early 1970s gradually gave way to more restrained designs. The traditional designs of the 1930s and 1950s, such as those produced by Tootal, reappeared, particularly Paisley patterns. Ties began to be sold along with shirts, and designers slowly began to experiment with bolder colors.
In the 1980s, narrower ties — some as narrow as, but more typically wide — became popular again. Novelty ties or deliberately kitschy ties designed to make a statement gained a certain popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. These included ties featuring cartoon characters, commercial products, or pop culture icons, and those made of unusual materials, such as leather, plastic, or even wood. Into the 1990s, as ties got wider again, increasingly unusual designs became common. During this period, with men wearing their trousers at their hips, ties lengthened to. The number of ties sold in the United States reached a peak of 110 million in the early 1990s.