A necktie (usually just
called a tie) is a piece
of material worn around the neck. The modern
necktie's original name was the
four-in-hand tie. It is usually
a dress requirement for businessmen and
probably the most common father's gift in
the world. The modern necktie along with
the Ascot and the
bowtie
are all descended from the cravat.
Cravat
A cravat is the neckband
that was the forerunner of the modern tailored
necktie. From the end of the 16th century
the term "band" applied to any
long strip of cloth worn round the neck
that was not a "ruff." The ruff
itself had started its career in the earlier
16th century as a starched and pleated strip
of white linen that could be freshly changed
to keep the neck of a
doublet
from getting increasingly grimy. A "band"
could indicate a plain attached shirt collar
or a detached "falling band" that
draped over the doublet collar.
The modern form of the "cravat"
originated in the 1630s. Like most male
fashions between the 17th century and World
War I, it had a military origin. During
the reign of Louis XIII of France, Croatian
mercenaries enlisted in a regiment that
supported the King and Richelieu against
the Duc de Guise and the Queen Mother, Marie
de Medici. The traditional outfit of these
Croats aroused curiosity in Paris on account
of the unusual and picturesque scarves distinctively
tied about their necks. The scarves were
made of various cloths, ranging from coarse
material for common soldiers, to fine linen
and silk for officers. The word 'cravat'
comes from the French cravate,
and many sources state that this is a corruption
of "Croat," or "Hrvat,"
as it is said in Croatian. However there
is evidence that the word was in use in
France in the 14th century and in Italy
in 16th century. In one of his ballads,
the French writer Eustache Deschamps (c.
1340-1407), used the phrase 'faites restraindre
sa cravate' (pull his cravat tighter). Considering
the interdependency of many European regions
(particularly the French) with the Venetian
Empire, and the fact that this empire at
one time occupied the bulk of the Croatian
coast, that type of cross-culturalization
would not be unprecedented. Whatever the
origin of the word the new form of dress
became known as a cravate and the
French were quite ready to give up the starched
linen ruffs, that they had been wearing
and adopt the new fashion of loose cravates
made of linen or muslin with broad edges
of
lace.
On his return to England from exile in
1660, Charles II brought with him this new
word in fashion:
A cravatte is another kind of adornment
for the neck being nothing else but
a long towel put about the Collar, and
so tyed before with a Bow Knott; this
is the original of all such Wearings;
but now by the Art and Inventions of
the seamsters, there is so many new
ways of making them, that it would be
a task to name, much more to describe
them.
Randle Holme, Academy of Armory
and Blazon, 1688.
A gentleman's cravat would be made of
fine lace. Grinling Gibbons the famous carver
and sculptor, made a highly realistic one,
carved out of a piece of white limewood.
During the wars of Louis XIV of 1689
- 1697, the flowing cravat was replaced,
except for court occasions, by the more
current and equally military Steinkirk,
named for the battle in Flanders of 1692.
The Steinkirk was a long narrow, plain or
lightly trimmed neckcloth worn with military
dress, wrapped just once about the neck
in a loose knot, with a lace of fringed
ends that were twisted together and tucked
out of the way into the button-hole (of
either a coat or a waistcoat) The steinkirk
proved to be popular with both men and women
until the 1720s.
The Macaronis reintroduced the flowing
cravat in the 1770s and the manner of tying
one became a matter of personal taste and
style, to the extent that after Waterloo,
the neckwear itself was increasingly referred
to as a "tie".
In the
United States
an ascot is another name for a cravat but
in Britain it refers to different sort of
a formal neckwear. The Ascot has a narrow
neckband and wide wings that are folded
over and held firm with a pin. The Ascot
became popular in the 1880s, when it began
to be worn by the upper-middle classes on
formal occasions, notably the Royal Ascot
race meeting from which it takes its name.
Four-in-Hand
The four-in-hand tie became fashionable
in Britain in the 1850s. Early ties were
simple rectangular strips of cloth cut on
the square with square ends. The name four-in-hand
originally described a carriage with four
horses and one driver. Later it became the
name of a Gentlemen's club in London. Some
reports state that the carriage drivers
tied their reins with a
four-in-hand knot (see below) whilst
others claim that the carriage drivers wore
their scarves in the manner of a four-in-hand,
but the most likely explanation is that
members of the club began to wear the new
style of neckwear making it fashionable.
In the later half of the 19th century the
four-in-hand knot and the four-in-hand tie
were synonymous. As stiff collars gave way
to soft turned down collars the four-in-hand
gained popularity. With its increasing dominance,
the term four-in-hand fell out of usage
and it was simply called a 'long tie' or
a 'tie'.
In 1926 Jesse Langsdorf from
New York
introduced ties cut on the diagonal which
meant that the tie fell evenly from the
knot without twisting.
There are four
main knots used. The simplest, the
four-in-hand knot, is probably used by
the vast majority of tie wearers. The
other three (in order of difficulty) are
the Pratt knot (also known as the Shelby
knot), the Half-Windsor knot and the
Windsor knot. The Windsor knot is named
after the Duke of Windsor, although he
himself did not use it. The Duke
favoured a thick knot and achieved this
result by having ties specially made of
thicker material. In the late 1990s two
researchers (Thomas Fink and Yong Mao)
of Cambridge University's Cavendish
Laboratory used mathematical modelling
to discover that it is possible to tie
85 different knots with a conventional
tie. They found that in addition to the
four well-known knots, 6 other knots
produced aesthetically pleasing results.
Today, ties are part of the formal clothing
of males in both Western and non-Western
societies, particularly in business. They
have also found their way into the outfits
of fashionably trail blazing females. Generally
it is a thick swath made from
silk or
cotton,
and is tied around the
collar.
Power tie
In the 1980s, US President Ronald Reagan
was known for his red power tie,
as much a virility symbol in American corporate
culture as a red convertible has been in
the culture at large. Oscar Wilde said "a
well-tied tie is the first serious step
in life".
Many of the revolutionaries of the 20th
century showed solidarity with the Workers
by refusing ties. Stalin and Mao wore clothing
that buttoned all the way to the neck, Nehru
wore a nehru jacket and Kim Il Sung follows
suit. But in 1998, when the Pope visited
Cuba, and Fidel Castro abandoned his fatigues
for a suit and tie.
Christopher Caggiano asked in Inc
Magazine, December 1997, "Does
anyone still wear a power tie?" as
Casual Fridays had been extended through
the week, especially among smaller, privately-owned
businesses in the information-technology-services
area. "Power tie" in the 1990s
connoted a gift for a lawyer with scales
and gavels in the print. But by 2004 power
ties were experiencing a resurgence. A squib
by reporter Paige Wiser in the Chicago
Sun-Times August 5, 2004, "The
pink power tie" made an observation
that the power tie of the moment was pink.
Fortune advised "Grab Your
Power Tie: The 1980s Are Back."
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