all about
ties
A Common Thread: The
Tie Over Time
Well here it is. Now on our site over 10
years, and copied to many others. Please understand it is for
your enjoyment only. And do not search the internet for the
"history of the necktie." It would seem there are more
websites that want to talk about it than there are ties sold on any
given day.
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.
|
|
221 B.C. |
When Shih Huang Ti's Terra Cotta army is discovered in an underground
tomb in China, they're all wearing neckties. |
|
113 A.D. |
Early Roman orators wear neckerchiefs
to keep their vocal cords warm. |
|
1660 |
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. |
|
1692 |
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. |
|
1784 |
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. |
|
1800's |
"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.
Return to the top
|
|
1815 |
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." |
|
1837 |
As cravats become easier to tie
and wear, people start to call them ties. |
|
1842 |
British novelist Charles Dickens
shocks Americans by wearing neck cloths striped in scarlet, green and purple
during his first U.S. tour. |
|
1860 |
"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. |
|
1864 |
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. |
|
1878 |
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.
Return to the top
|
|
1880 |
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.
|
|
Early 1900's |
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. |
|
1914 |
"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. |
|
1920's |
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.
|
|
1936 |
The Duke of Windsor is credited
with the invention of the Windsor, a wide, triangular knot for a widespread
shirt collar. |
|
1940's |
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.
Return to the top
|
|
1947
|
A Grover Chain Shirt Shop clerk
pleads guilty to immorality charges for selling ties featuring pictures
of naked women. |
|
1967 |
Hollywood heartthrob Warren Beatty
stars in the movie Bonnie and Clyde, reviving the American gangster
trend of wearing white ties on dark shirts. |
|
1970 |
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. |
|
1971 |
The Bolo, a leather or string tie
fastened with a silver or turquoise sliding device, is named the official
state tie of Arizona. |
|
1980's |
Ronald Reagan sports a Windsor throughout
his presidency. |
|
1983 |
Skinny leather ties were worn on
paisley or pin-striped shirts. |
|
1986 |
Ralph Marlin ushers in the conversational
necktie trend by producing a tie in the shape of a fish. |
|
1998 |
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.
compiled by Ralph Marlin and
Company in 1998 from; (Sources)
Kim Johnson Gross and Jeff Stone,
Shirt and Tie (New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 1993).
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).
Return to the top
|
