Tie Knots

[Lister-Heathcote]

Which is the preferred tie knot of members of the Lounge? Is the general consensus for an all-round knot, or are different ones used for business/casual/formal situations?

Best Wishes

Lister-Heathcote

[Costi]

I choose among the same two-three knots according to the width and thickness of the tie in relation to the collar size and spread.

[Luca]

Most of my ties have a reasonable heft and with those I stick to a four-in-hand. Some older ties I'm attached to have a thinner cosntruction and on thsoe i use a half-Windsor. I Tried a full Windsor once but it looked a bit comical.

[pvpatty]

Four-in-hand always. Unless a Windsor is tied very tightly, I hate them. And, of course, there is the humble bow tie.

[Trey]

It depends on the tie and collar. I favor what Brooks Brothers calls their "tennis collar" forward point shirt, in which case a four in hand knot is preferred. I have spread collar shirts and will occassionally go with a half-windsor knot. This too, however, depends on the thickness and width of the tie. I am not fond of full windsor's.

Has anyone noticed a drop off, or great degree of variation between the quality of Hermes ties? My recently purchased Hermes ties tend to roll inwards on the sides toward my body as opposed to simply resting flat against my body. The knot's quality also seems to not be quite up to snuff.

A couple of recently purchased Brooks Brothers ties are seemingly of very poor quality.

While on the subject of tie knots - to dimple or not to dimple?

Trey Aycock

[Lister-Heathcote]

Interesting subject. I, for one, have always dimpled because that is the way my knots seem to turn out. When the occasion arrises that I do feel like an un-dimpled tie, it always involves several minutes of frantic adjustment and struggling, and the whole knot loosens up and becomes rather ugly. However, I would rather like to wear un-dimpled ties, as I find them more elegant, as well as the fact that I always feel rather proud having accomplished such a knot!

Lister-Heathcote

[Costi]

Undimpled for me.
I think a full Windsor tied on a not too thick and wide (and long enough!) tie, worn with a moderate spread collar with enough tie space may not look bad at all. Not an "artistic" knot, but certainly appropriate. However, I find I use it rather rarely.
I am glad there is general consensus on tie knots on the LL, and that is that it depends...

[RWS]

I'd always tied undimpled, perhaps because that's what my father tied. I very much preferred the look, too.

Then I went into business. Most Americans wear a dimpled tie, and I wished not to stand out.

After years of trying to dimple the tie, I at last succeeded. And now I cannot seem to tie a good-looking knot without a dimple below it!

One must be careful what he wishes for.

[Cufflink79]

I usually do a four in hand with my neck ties.

Some of my woven ties are thick enough to fill a spread or cutaway collar nicely and they were tied with a four in hand knot.

Printed ties tend to make smaller four in hands, and require the half windsor when it comes to spread or cutaway collars.

I tried to do a full windsor one time but the end results made the tie way too short.

Best Regards,

Cufflink79

[Scot]

It depends on the tie and collar. I favor what Brooks Brothers calls their "tennis collar" forward point shirt, in which case a four in hand knot is preferred. I have spread collar shirts and will occassionally go with a half-windsor knot. This too, however, depends on the thickness and width of the tie. I am not fond of full windsor's.

Has anyone noticed a drop off, or great degree of variation between the quality of Hermes ties? My recently purchased Hermes ties tend to roll inwards on the sides toward my body as opposed to simply resting flat against my body. The knot's quality also seems to not be quite up to snuff.

A couple of recently purchased Brooks Brothers ties are seemingly of very poor quality.

While on the subject of tie knots - to dimple or not to dimple?

Trey Aycock

On the subject of Hermes ties - yes most definitely, unless they are stored flat, which is a bother.

[Trey]

I now store Hermes ties rolled rather than hanging, but alas I think the damage has been done.

After "dimpling" for so long, I find it hard now to not dimple. My ties now seem to have minds of their own, with the exception of a few ties from well known makers - Brooks Brothers - that are apparently now so cheaply made that I can hardly train them to do anything except frustrate me!

Trey

[sartorius]

Four in hand always. And I also always dimple - I think that there should be a dimple with a four in hand. Without one, the overall look is much less elegant.

My one concern is that a good dimple often requires the knot to be tight, and that can take its toll on the tie. It tends to leave creases in the silk which do not always come out even with storage flat or after wrapping around the fingers.

[yachtie]

I choose among the same two-three knots according to the width and thickness of the tie in relation to the collar size and spread.

Exactly: "Half" windsor for wide spread or cutaway collars, Four-in-hand for points or narrower spread collars.

I let the tie decide- some dimple, some don't- couldn't care less either way.

[storeynicholas]

I like a dimple and maybe not necessarily in the centre - to add "some sweet neglect" and and (central) dimple I find necessary with a pin - otherwise the pin looks completely lost as though staggering home through the snow. However, I certainly agree that knots that make dimples, destroy ties.
NJS

[Cordovan]

For the longest time I could never get a good knot when tying a four-in-hand. Most of the time I ended up with a cylindrical knot which obviously did not look good at all. I finally succeeded with a Yves Saint Laurent tie - and was quite pleased with it. I don't know what happened, but it just 'clicked'. I now use it on occasion. Most of the time I still use a knot my father taught me when I was still a young boy and although I have tried others, this is still an old favorite. I have not seen it described anywhere, but it looks somewhat like a four-in-hand but with a little more heft and slightly less asymmetry. I will use that with almost any collar as would I a four-in-hand provided I get a good knot.

For a short while, I was intrigued by half Windsors, but for the most part, that was a passing phase. The one time that I felt I had to go out of my way to tie one was at my sister's wedding when the immediate family on both sides were wearing matching dinner jackets and ties. I was rather unhappy at being coerced into wearing a 'tux necktie' with my DJ, but was forced to conform. Once I was doing though, I tied a half Windsor and would do the same today.

Cordovan