Neckties

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Necktie Summary

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Neckties

As an essential accessory of male business and formal wear, a sign of social connections and status, the necktie has been in general use since the 1830s. Its earliest origins, however, are to be found in the more practical neck-warming and face-protecting scarves worn by Croatian troops, dubbed cravats by the French in the 1630s. Adapted into voluminous swatches of lace or linen, these gained popularity with the expansion of Parisian fashion influence in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and by the mid-nineteenth century, cravats had became largely ornamental.

During conservative and conventional times such as the first two decades of the twentieth century, the 1950s, and the 1980s, neckties have often been among the few sources of color and pattern in men's wardrobes. They have allowed their wearers to express individual tastes and even whimsy, but they have also reflected contemporary cultural and regional influences. In the American South and West during the late nineteenth century, the earlier neck-cloth evolved into the vestigial string or ribbon tie, while the bandanna soon diverged to serve practical ends for cowboys and other manual workers, and became the Boy Scout uniform's neckerchief in the early twentieth century. Finally, the leather-thonged bola emerged in 1949 to become the emblematic male neckwear of choice in at least the traditionally minded areas of the Southwest.

After the Civil War, throughout most of the rest of the United States, a "four-in-hand" style of knotting ever-narrowing neckscarves became the enduring standard until the 1930s when it found competition from the Windsor knot. A fuller variation with a triangular knot, intended for wide-collar shirts, it was introduced by the Duke of Windsor and won some loyal adherents, beginning in the 1930s. Neckties—a term accepted by the fashion industry circa 1912—came to vary in width, design, and fabric according to the vogue. Made exclusively of natural materials, primarily silk and wool, and relatively understated before the 1930s, ties then began to appear in cotton as well as the newer synthetics of rayon, acetate, polyester, and even plastic. The 1930s also witnessed wider ties that complemented the larger lapels of double-breasted jackets.

A customer shows off a bold patterned paisley necktie at a Buckhead men's store in Atlanta.

Countess Mara, one of the first exclusive designers of limited quantity neckties for men who wished to distinguish themselves from the crowd, found the market viable enough to set up her first shop in 1938. Another sign that wearing the correct necktie might bode well for one's chances of upward mobility, was the preference of some twentieth-century American men for British club or regimental neck-wear. The original intention of this tie was to identify the wearer as an alumnus of an exclusive educational or social establishment or a military veteran. After the rationing of the World War II years ended, a "bold look" characterized by "loud" neckties took hold from approximately 1945-1952. Neckwear was often colorful and whimsical, adorned with animals, geometric patterns, or sporting motifs. They were sometimes also idiosyncratic, with artists such as Salvador Dali hand-painting designs on individual ties (although silk-screening mass-produced a similar look.) Novelty ties such as those whose designs glowed in the dark also burst forth in the 1940s, and found cultural echoes in the fish tie motifs of the late 1980s.

The more conservative Cold War decade of the 1950s saw a regression to skinny ties with relatively little space for elaborate decorations. Lasting until the mid-1960s, ties designed to meet this trend became so minuscule that it was hardly a surprise when they literally disappeared from the majority of male necks at that decade's conclusion. They were replaced, even on formal occasions, by turtlenecks and accompanying medallions. But the counter-culture's sensibilities during that era also stigmatized neckties as representations of the social conformity espoused by prep school students, establishment politicians and businessmen.

The subsequent Peacock Revolution in men's fashions, however, ushered neckwear back into style. The British Carnaby Street influence even popularized fleeting returns to the lace neckwear of previous centuries. By the mid-1970s, ties were again wide enough (ata regulation five inches compared to an average width of two inches at one point during the previous decade) that they could sport many of the design elements that had appeared during the 1940s.

The return to a conservative, business-like temperament during the 1980s witnessed the advent of the entrepreneur's "power tie." This was first solid yellow, then red, and later of intricate designs from exclusive European fashion houses such as Gucci, Versace, Ferragamo, Hermes, or Sulka. Finally, the post-modern eclecticism that emerged in the 1990s saw the resurgence of several competing "retro" looks as young men in particular returned to the late Art Deco styles of the 1930s or to the skinny ties of the later 1950s. Tastes in clothing seemed to be dictated considerably less by the sense of the current era than by a nostalgic desire to return to a favorite decade of the past.

Throughout 150 years leading to the end of the twentieth century, long neckties occasionally appeared on women, especially as accessories of sporty female apparel during the 1890s, and in the "Annie Hall" look of the 1970s, popularized by Diane Keaton in the Woody Allen film of that name. Usually, however, women were more inclined to wear variations of a bow-tie rather than a necktie. The bow-tie has been an alternative for men as well, especially during the 1920s and 1930s. Although larger versions made their mark in the 1970s, John Malloy, touting fashion advice in Dress For Success, advised against them lest one not be taken seriously or be thought not quite honest.