The History of the Tie and its Glorious Return

By Cat Russell 

As it turns out, the Croats (the folk from Croatia, for those uneducated men) introduced, during the Thirty Years’ War in the 1600′s, what the Parisians (whose interestes were aroused upon it discovery when the Croat mercenaries were fighting for the French) would later term as the Cravat. From there History spat out several different ties ranging from neck-ties, bow-ties, clip-ons and scarves to the table cloths we saw men in the 1990’s wearing around their necks. (The 1990’s were a dark time in Fashion history, I believe we can all agree).

Ryan Gosling for GQ

The Fashion gods have deemed it appropriate in the last 7 for the thin ties to make a come back into our delightful world, having been raised from the dead and hailing to us from the 1960’s where ties were found to be as thin as 1 inch. We’re seeing the return of the skinny tie and just in time for our men to look dashing and handsome and carry that air of sophistication and class meets vagabond and ruffian.

With the top buttons of your slim fit dress-shirt undone and the tie loosened a little you’ll find that heads will turn as you stroll Downtown this Autumn/Winter and women from all ranks of life will be seen throwing carnations at your feet with shouts of praise and thanks.

There are many perks to being a young adult (or adult wanting to be young) and wearing the skinny tie is one of them (anything from 1.5in to about 2.75in) . Floor the friends, (floozy’s?…not those) and flat mates with your sense of easy style and play around with pattern on pattern concerning ties and shirts. Try to not go overboard as you’ll find that both man and beast will ignore, and in fact walk wide berths around you, just to not be seen walking by the clown sporting the fancy costume. If unsure of color and patterns, remember, less is always more and sticking to the basics at first will ensure miles of wear and ease in stepping up your game.