The Windsor knot, also sometimes referred to as a full Windsor to distinguish it from the half-Windsor or erroneously as a "double Windsor", is a method of tying a necktie around one's neck and collar. The Windsor knot, compared to other methods, produces a wide triangular knot. The knot is named after the Duke of Windsor (Edward VIII after abdication), however the Duke himself did not actually use a Windsor knot. The Duke preferred a wide knot and had his ties specially made with thicker cloth in order to produce a wider knot when tied with the conventional four in hand knot. In Ian Fleming's James Bond series, the British spy remarked that the Windsor knot was "the mark of a cad."
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Origin of the name
From http://www.hawesandcurtis.com/about_us_and_shirts.asp: The Prince of Wales infamously abdicated the British throne and rejected being the King of the British Empire for his love of Mrs Simpson, an American divorcee. King Edward VIII became the Duke of Windsor. Therafter became a pitchman for the Hawes & Curtis' company. In gratitude for the Duke's corporate support, Hawes & Curtis created a spread collar to fit the thick ties the duke favored. This tie had a thicker inner lining in the part of the tie that formed the knot. The Duke claimed in his memoirs that he did not, as commonly believed, invent the Windsor knot. Instead, his extra-thick and extra-wide ties resulted in an extra-large knot when tied with the basic four-in-hand knot. In an attempt to emulate this, others invented the Windsor knot to provide a similarly thick knot.
Tying
To tie the Windsor, place the tie around your neck and cross the broad end of the tie in front of the narrow end. Then fold the broad end behind the narrow end and push it up through the inside of the loop around your neck. The left and right sides of the narrow end, and the inside of the loop, now form a triangle. The third and fourth folds should complete one rotation around the outside of the knot. The fifth fold brings the broad end over the top of the knot from the front to the back. The sixth and seventh folds again complete one rotation around the knot. The eighth fold should again bring the broad end up over the top of the knot from behind; push the end down through the loop in front of the knot that you made with the seventh fold, work out any wrinkles, and pull the knot tight. If the tie is unbalanced, untie the knot and try again giving yourself more or less length to work with. Using the notation of The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie, by Thomas Fink and Yong Mao, the Windsor knot (knot 31) is tied
- Li Co Ri Lo Ci Ro Li Co T
Common variations are
- Li Co Li Ro Ci Lo Ri Co T (knot 32)
- Li Co Ri Lo Ci Lo Ri Co T (knot 33)
- Li Co Li Ro Ci Ro Li Co T (knot 35).
See also
- Half-Windsor knot - a less symmetric and slightly narrower knot
