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...