A History of Neckties

Podcast Transcript

One of the most ubiquitous items of clothing in formal and business attire is the necktie.

Yet a cursory check of paintings from several centuries ago shows that neckties have not been around forever. They are, in fact, a relatively recent invention.

Over the last century, neckwear has both defined fashion and changed with the times.

Learn more about neckties, how they developed, and why they exist in the first place on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Most of you are familiar with neckties. Most men listening to this own at least one. Some of you wear one every day, and some of you might only wear them for weddings and funerals.

Neckties are very odd if you think about it.

They serve no functional purpose. They don’t hold anything up. They don’t close anything off.

Unlike jewelry, which also mostly doesn’t serve any practical purpose, they can at least serve as a display of wealth.

A tie, however, is just a piece of cloth. Even if it’s a nice piece of cloth, say silk, it’s still just cloth.

Yet neckwear, usually worn by men, is considered mandatory at certain events and in certain industries. A suit and tie are considered the uniform for professionals. Black tie events are considered the peak of formality.

So, how did we get to this point?

The idea of wearing something around your neck goes back a long way.

The earliest known examples of neckwear appear on the terracotta soldiers of China’s first emperor, dating to around 210 BC, making neckwear far older than most people assume.

The Roman focale was a practical and surprisingly important piece of clothing in the daily life of Roman soldiers, and it stands as one of the clearest ancient ancestors of the modern necktie or scarf.

The focale was a long strip of cloth, usually wool or sometimes linen, worn around the neck by legionaries to protect the skin from chafing caused by armor. It was basically a scarf.

This was especially helpful when wearing the armor known as the lorica segmentata, whose rigid metal plates and straps could rub painfully against the neck during marching or combat. In cold climates, the focale also provided warmth, adding a layer of insulation beneath the armor.

The focale was not purely practical, however. Evidence from Roman art and literature indicates that it also held a modest symbolic or decorative function.

Some depictions show soldiers with neatly tied focale in various colors, suggesting that style and presentation played a role, particularly for officers or parade-ground appearances.

Authors mention the focale in a way that implies it could be a gift or personal item, not merely a standard-issue piece of equipment.

Despite the focale having some sort of ornamental value, it, like most neck coverings, was used pragmatically.

The modern origins of the necktie can be traced to the seventeenth century during the Thirty Years’ War. Croatian mercenaries serving in the French army wore distinctive knotted neckerchiefs as part of their traditional attire.

These scarves caught the attention of Parisian society, particularly King Louis XIV, who was known for his extravagant fashion sense. The French called these accessories “cravates,” derived from “Croate,” the French word for Croatian.

By the 1660s, the cravat had become an essential element of aristocratic dress in France and quickly spread throughout Europe.

The original cravats were large pieces of linen or muslin, often edged with lace, that were wrapped around the neck and tied in various elaborate knots. Wearing a cravat became an art form among European nobility, with different styles signifying rank, regiment, or simply personal taste.

Some men employed servants specifically trained in the complex task of tying these neckpieces. The cravat remained the dominant form of neckwear throughout the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, evolving in size and styling but maintaining its essential character as a wrapped and knotted cloth.

The nineteenth century witnessed significant evolution in neckwear design and function. The Industrial Revolution brought new manufacturing techniques and materials, while changing social structures created new demands for men’s fashion.

The stock, a stiffened band of fabric that buckled at the back, became popular in the early 1800s, particularly among military officers and formal dressers. Stocks are still used today in the world of traditional equestrian attire, particularly in fox hunting and dressage.

The rigid style of the stock gradually gave way to more flexible alternatives.

Around the 1850s, the necktie began to assume forms more recognizable to modern eyes. The four-in-hand tie emerged, named after the Four-in-Hand Carriage Company in London, whose drivers supposedly popularized this simpler knot.

This style featured a long piece of fabric tied with a relatively straightforward knot, allowing for quicker dressing than the elaborate cravats of previous generations.

The ascot tie, a more formal variation with broad wings, also gained prominence during the Victorian era and was typically secured with a decorative pin.

The late nineteenth century saw the popularization of the bow tie as a distinct category of neckwear, though bow-shaped arrangements of fabric had existed earlier.

The bow tie offered a neat, symmetrical appearance that appealed to those seeking a more contained aesthetic. It became particularly associated with formal evening wear and certain professions, including academics and physicians.

Just as an aside, every official presidential portrait, starting with George Washington, has some sort of neckwear….except Andrew Jackson, who is wearing a very high collar.

What they are wearing differs greatly over time, with many of the early pre-Civil War presidents wearing stock ties.

The modern necktie as we know it today emerged in the early twentieth century. In 1924, New York tie maker Jesse Langsdorf revolutionized tie construction by patenting a method of cutting fabric at a 45-degree angle to the weave and sewing it in three segments.

This technique allowed ties to hang properly without twisting, maintain their shape better, and allowed them to drape more naturally against the shirt. Langsdorf’s innovation became the industry standard and remains the fundamental construction method for quality neckties today.

The 1920s and 1930s saw neckties become shorter and wider, reflecting the broader, more relaxed silhouettes of men’s fashion during this period.

Ties became increasingly important as markers of personality and style, with patterns, colors, and materials offering men one of their few opportunities for self-expression within the relatively conservative constraints of masculine dress codes.

Art Deco patterns, bold geometrics, and vivid colors characterized the ties of this era, although you’d hardly know it if you only saw images in black and white.

During World War II, fabric rationing affected tie production, leading to narrower, shorter ties made from whatever materials were available. The post-war period saw an explosion of variety in necktie design.

The late 1940s and 1950s brought wider ties back into fashion, often featuring bold patterns, tropical scenes, or abstract designs that reflected the optimistic, consumer-driven culture of the era.

The “Bold Look” promoted by the likes of Esquire magazine encouraged men to express themselves through colorful, eye-catching ties.

Around this time, a new form of neckwear developed in the American Southwest: The Bolo Tie.

Its exact origin is contested, and several people have claimed to be the inventor. One popular claim comes from Victor Cedarstaff of Wickenburg, Arizona, who said that in the late 1940s the wind blew his hatband off; he caught it, slipped it around his neck, and fastened it with a decorative slide, inspiring him to patent a similar design in 1954.

At the same time, Native American silversmiths in New Mexico and Arizona were producing nearly identical neck ornaments, using braided leather cords and ornate silver slides, suggesting that the style arose organically within Southwestern culture rather than from a single inventor.

In 1971, Arizona declared the bolo tie the state’s official neckwear, followed by New Mexico in 1987 and Texas in 2007, giving the bolo tie a formal status no other region had ever granted a neck accessory.

The 1960s introduced the “skinny tie,” a narrow style that complemented the slim-fitting suits favored by modernist designers and embraced by youth culture. This narrower silhouette reflected the era’s emphasis on streamlined, contemporary aesthetics.

Meanwhile, the counterculture movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s began to question the necktie’s dominance altogether, viewing it as a symbol of conformity and corporate constraint.

The 1970s saw perhaps the most dramatic variation in necktie styles, with widths ranging from very narrow to extraordinarily wide; some ties of this decade measured six inches across at their widest point. Kipper ties, as these extremely wide varieties were called, often featured psychedelic patterns, bold stripes, or oversized polka dots.

The 1980s brought a return to more traditional styling, though with distinct characteristics of its era. Power dressing emphasized bold, confident appearance, and ties became wider again, often featuring strong diagonal stripes, geometric patterns, or designer logos.

The necktie became explicitly associated with corporate success and professional ambition. Designer labels became prominently important, with ties from makers like Hermès, Armani, and Ralph Lauren serving as status symbols. This was the era when the tie truly became associated with the “power suit” and corporate culture.

Think of the fashion in the movie American Psycho.

Neckties, at least a proper one, can’t just be worn; they need to be tied. Learning how to tie a tie is a rite of passage.

There isn’t just a single way to tie a tie. There are several different knots, and which knot you use is a matter of preference.

The Four-in-Hand is the simplest and most widely used, producing a slightly asymmetrical, compact knot that works with most collars and fabrics; its ease of tying made it the everyday knot of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The Half Windsor developed as a compromise between simplicity and symmetry, forming a medium-sized triangular knot that looks cleaner and more balanced than the Four-in-Hand while still being relatively quick to tie.

The Full Windsor, often associated with formality and confidence, creates a large, perfectly symmetrical knot with a broad triangular shape, ideal for spread or cutaway collars. Although commonly linked to the Duke of Windsor, the knot actually predates him.

The Prince Albert knot is a long, cylindrical necktie knot created by wrapping the wide end around the narrow end twice before pulling it through, producing a slightly elongated, layered look often favored for its distinctive vertical shape.

These are the most common knots, but they are not the only ones.

The Pratt knot, also known as the Shelby knot, appeared in the late twentieth century and sits between the Four-in-Hand and the Half Windsor in size and symmetry; it starts with the tie inside-out and produces a neat, medium-sized, evenly balanced knot suited to most modern shirts.

In more formal or specialized settings, other knots occasionally appear, such as the Kelvin, a slightly bulkier, more symmetrical variation of the Four-in-Hand, and the Prince Albert, which wraps the narrow end around the front twice before tucking, resulting in a long, cylindrical knot favored by some for its distinctive vertical look.

Surprisingly, there is really only one standard bow tie knot, often simply called the bow knot or shoelace knot, because it is tied almost exactly like tying a shoelace.

This single knot can vary slightly in tightness, shape, or proportion depending on the bow tie’s style, but the fundamental knot remains the same.

Neckties are so common and ubiquitous that you might have never even given them a second thought at any point in your life.

Yet, the reason they are even a thing today is that a bunch of 17th-century French aristocrats were trying to copy the style of Croatian mercenaries.