all about tiesA Common Thread: The Tie Over Time
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ralph Before the oxford collar. Before the three-piece suit. Before the White House intern. Since umpteen-years-ago-B.C., ties have been making their mark on our wardrobes -- and our history books. |
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When Shih Huang Ti's Terra Cotta army is discovered in an underground tomb in China, they're all wearing neckties. |
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Early Roman orators wear neckerchiefs to keep their vocal cords warm. |
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In 1660, Louis XIV invites a Croatian military regime to Paris to honor them for their victory over the Turks. Louis is as captivated by the officers' brightly colored silk neck cloths as he is by their valor. The first cravat, derived from the word Croat, is modeled after their showy neck cloths. |
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Too hurried to tie their cravats before entering the battle of Steinkirke in Holland, French soldiers tuck the long, fringed cloths into their buttonholes. The Steinkirke remains popular into the 1800s. |
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Beau Brummel, arguably the father of the dandy movement, was the first to view his neck cloth, a lightly starched high cravat, as a way to express individuality. The "cult of the neckcloth" begins. |
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"Touching another man's tie was a serious matter and, according to one book of the period, grounds for a duel," according to the Neckwear Association of America. |
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Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo may have been linked to a change of cravat. "The Emperor normally wore black silk," reports 19th century fashion expert H. Le Blanc, "but at Waterloo, he wore a white handkerchief, with a flowing bow." |
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As cravats become easier to tie and wear, people start to call them ties. |
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British novelist Charles Dickens shocks Americans by wearing neck cloths striped in scarlet, green and purple during his first U.S. tour. |
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"Nobody knows who did it, but one day a man unwound his scarf and knotted it as if it were the reins of a four-in-hand carriage." The modern long tie is born. |
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The first mass-produced, "ready-made" tie is patented. Though frowned upon in Europe, the tie develops a strong following in Germany and the United States. "A well-tied tie is the first serious step in life," writes Romantic poet and dandy Oscar Wilde, who wore knee breeches, a velvet coat and a flowing green tie. |
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Dr. Gustav Jaeger of Stuttgart in Germany states that dressing in non-dyed wool, cravat included, is good for the health. Writer George Bernard Shaw is among the first to boldly don a "straight-from-the-sheep" Jaeger suit and tie in fashionable London. |
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The first club or "Old School" tie appears when members of the Exeter College rowing team at Oxford University take the striped bands off their rowing hats and tie them around their necks. |
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Edward, Prince of Wales (later known as the Duke of Windsor) leads the trend away from formal cravats toward less formal soft collars and four-in-hand ties. |
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"During the first World War, a mass tie craze swept America. Everybody from leather workers to guys on construction sites were wearing ties, " says Myron Ackerman, a retired New York tie-man. |
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Cubist painters Braque and Picasso inspire the colorful Art Deco ties of the Jazz Age. The Macclesfield, a silk tie with a small, regularly repeating design of circles, appears under the chins of wealthy American men. |
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The Duke of Windsor is credited with the invention of the Windsor, a wide, triangular knot for a widespread shirt collar. |
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The belly warmer - a wide, floppy tie adorned with hula dancers and palm trees - catches on. The tie, originally introduced as a joke, becomes an American style statement. Actors Bob Hope, Alan Ladd and Danny Kay appear in advertisements for ties. |
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A Grover Chain Shirt Shop clerk pleads guilty to immorality charges for selling ties featuring pictures of naked women. |
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Hollywood heartthrob Warren Beatty stars in the movie Bonnie and Clyde, reviving the American gangster trend of wearing white ties on dark shirts. |
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Elvis Presley heralds the age of disco by abandoning his straight black tie in favor of a loose neckerchief or, sometimes, a kipper, a vast tie with a huge knot. |
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The Bolo, a leather or string tie fastened with a silver or turquoise sliding device, is named the official state tie of Arizona. |
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Ronald Reagan sports a Windsor throughout his presidency. |
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Skinny leather ties were worn on paisley or pin-striped shirts. |
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Ralph Marlin ushers in the conversational necktie trend by producing a tie in the shape of a fish. |
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Bill Clinton's Ralph Marlin tie makes the headlines not for its style, but because it's a gift from a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. Sources Diana de Marly, Fashion for Men: An Illustrated History (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc.,1985). Sarah Gibbings, The Tie: Trends and Traditions (New York: Barron's, 1990). |
