Many discussions on what elements comprise a well-made tie note that that the silk should be cut “on the bias”, which I understand to mean that the tie pattern is laid out so that the tie drapes at roughly a 45 degree angle to the direction in which it was woven. And while I have never worn a Marinella tie, tie, I have heard near universal praise for the product from people whose judgment I respect. Yet I have also heard complaints from at least one member that Marniella ties are not cut on the bias. What to make of this? I think the answer is fairly obvious, but bear with me.
A few days ago, I had the opportunity to examine a large number of Marinella ties at the premises of fourinhand.com. Apart from the general beauty of the ties and the surprising range of their design, I noticed something relevant. Many ties, indeed, appeared to be not cut on the bias. Some, on the other hand, were. Despite the variety, one thing was consistent. The ties seemed well crafted and when draped in my hand appeared to flow and hang nicely without any twisting. Of the ties that appeared not to be cut on the bias, some were laid out with the tell-tale ribbing aligned vertically and some with the ribbing lain horizontally. At least one, a satin, was indeterminate to me. The only conclusion I could come to was that the ties were cut and sewn in a manner that worked for the silk being used and in most cases that meant cut not on the bias.
Here are some examples (I snatched these from the fourinhand site without permission so they may not last):
First, a tie cut on the bias
Notice how you can see the weave running at a 45 degree angle (perpendicular to the colored stripes).
Now a tie with the ribbing running up and down.
Is this cut on the bias? I don’t know. Can you judge by the ribbing, or do you look at the diagonal pattern in the little stars? What about this one? On the bias or not?
I can’t find any with pictures of ones with Horizontal ribbing, but I am fairly sure I saw some.
One thing that seemed to clear to me is that regardless of the direction of the ribbing, the tie seemed to be cut the way the pattern dictated. Since the tie draped well, that presumably means that the silk was designed to drape with the ribbing horizontal or vertical as dictated by the pattern. You can see that the pattern, not the ribbing dictates the cut of the silk most easily from this picture:
Clearly, rotating the silk would not work very well.
Despite the length of this post, I really I only have one point to make - cutting on the bias does not appear to be such a key critical element in the quality of the tie. The important factor seems to be the matching of the weave to the way the silk will be cut as dictated by the pattern at the time the silk is designed.
How about these? Bias cut or not?
Satin:
[EDIT:] I just noticed something. I am, today, wearing a charvet tie, which like many of their ties, is a satin weave with a repeating geometric figure pattern. The pattern is created by “floating” strands of silk in a different color and direction above the main weave. The direction of weave is obvious from the floating strands and the insertion points. In the case of my Charvet tie, the silk has clearly been cut on the bias. Without the floating stands, I was unable to discern the direction of the tight weave on the Marinella plain satin, but if they also did Charvet style patterns with their satins, it would be easy to tell.
or Macclesfield:
One final comment. Everything I wrote here is based on observation with very little real knowledge. I could have everything wrong, in which case I would be delighted to be corrected. For example, I have a sneaking suspicion that someone will say that the three ties with vertical ribbing are cut on the bias. If that is so, please tell me how I can identify the weave direction and how I can tell when a tie is or isn’t cut on the bias. I welcome any discussion on the topic.
OK. This is the real final comment. I noticed that the printed Marinella ties (the three with the vertical ribbing, for example) all had a very dry, stiff, almost rough hand. That is very different from all of my other print ties. What is that, and why is that?
