How to tie a Tie??
The very fact that I googled the question guarantees me instant admittance into the ‘no-tie-tying-knowledge’ group. I did my schooling from a humble Kendriya Vidyalaya in Assam. Most people there couldn’t afford a Rs. 5 badge, let alone a tie. So, the Tie or to be more precise Necktie was never there in the school uniform and most of us never ever learned the nuances of tying a Necktie.
At the University, whenever I needed it, there was always somebody to help out. So, Tie tying skills never made it into my resume. It forever remained a thing for the friends to do.
That was all about yesteryears, but recently I had to go to a University Admission seminar and guess what, there was nobody around to help me out. So, after much trial and error and almost hanging myself a couple of times, I decided to consult the huge encyclopedia we call the Internet.
The wind was totally knocked out of me, when I saw this amazing illustration…
Can you imagine our forefathers from the Stone Age actually invented four different ways of tying a Necktie! (Actually there are more than four ways, but over the years the others have succumbed to fashion trends). Classification is generally based on the knot the Necktie uses. The four most common ways are 1) the Windsor Knot 2) The Half-Windsor knot 3) the Four-in-Hand knot and 4) the Bow tie.
The Windsor Necktie, which is the widest of them all, is shaped like a triangle and is generally suitable for extra-wide shirt collars.The Half-Windsor is the leaner compatriot of the Windsor and is the most common form of tying a Necktie. The four-in-hand is the longer and the straighter version, generally used as a complement to standard shirt collars. The final one is the bow tie, which unfortunately only looks good on Leonardo diCaprio and Pierce Brosnan. It is meant to be for the man who dresses with a certain flair and thus automatically rules me out.
Well, I sometimes wonder as to why they invented such a disgusting thing after all. Don’t tell me it looks good… It doesn’t. It virtually strangles your neck, so that rules out any practical significance. If you study the history of the Necktie, you will find that people started using it just because they thought tying a piece of cloth shows your status. However, the real reason is perhaps it helped distinguish ones own men from the others during war or conflicts. That was how it all began. Now days, we don’t need to distinguish between my men and your men and social status is a dying thing, but still the custom of tying the necktie has remained.
So, for the University Admission seminar, I choose the Half-Windsor and somehow (with the help of the mirror and my cheating skills) managed to get a decent shape resembling a tie. To my utter surprise, the admission seminar was an informal one and nobody (including the admission counselor) was wearing a tie or anything distantly resembling it. Seeing this I promptly removed my leash and stuffed it into my pocket. My much valued research into the art of tying a tie was , it seemed, totally useless. Or, was it!! Only time will tell… Peace
