Depends on the width of the tie - Windsor for wider ones and Pratt for narrower ones.
Of course that is past tense. We live full time in motor home traveling around the country and I have no ties or suits with me.
Lady checking in. I adore the full windsor on most men. Don’t see a point for the others, really.
Full Windsor really only looks good if you’re wearing sufficiently wide collars. Unless you also want men to wear only one kind of collar, there is a point to the others.
Also feel most look good in spread collars, not pinpoint.
Four in Hand. 18.5 neck requires it.
Windsor is required and taught to pizza hut managers.
Various ways indeed…
Actually, I despise the modern long tie. It’s useless, boring, ugly, and ridiculous. Furthermore it annoys me that certain aspects of our society have gotten so strictly standardized. I much prefer the variety of masculine neckwear available for adoption up through the early 20th century.
I hate neckties but I have to wear them at work. I do a half-Windsor because it’s easy and it feels less like a goiter on my throat.
They’re not appropriate for work unfortunately, but I love the concept of Guayabara shirts. They were developed in Cuba and other Caribbean and Latin American places where it’s too damned hot to wear a tie when you want to dress up a bit. I live in Alabama and a tie is okay for indoors in summer but outdoors they can be miserable.
To all
I found this site humorous but informational at the same time. It was like reading a survey of the ‘halves and half knots’ of our society. I am retired at near age 60 now but still taken for a late forties professional as I worked for many years in a large professional computer operations firm where many mistook me as the management even though I was only a union hourly wage employee. I always took pride in dressing better than both my peers and supervisors which I learned later got me in trouble with insulting them. Sorry if I looked too good! /~;
First up here in this discussion, I was given an antique collectable tie by a lady friend a few weeks ago even though I have little reason to even where one any longer, I had to review the old world of tie knots as this tie from about 1945 was very short in total length. It was possibly over ten years ago now that I was still wearing my fine silk ties to work, and that I actually bought my last tie for a special occasion two years ago; that of my fathers funeral.
Second up, what’s all the nonsense about those that go through the ridiculous trouble to claim that they only know how to tie a Windsor knot for their overweight bullfrog necks? Or that they only know a certain knot because their mothers only showed them how? Common guys, get with it! Learn something new and look better, feel better and it also increases the brain power! (;
It should be a matter of personal preference that the tie knot conforms to the weight of the face and other features of the shirt collar, jacket style, etc. However anyone today that has the extra mile of tie length learns that the ‘Four in Hand Knot’ is still the simplest and cleanest look for an average weight and narrow faced man. You’ll just end up with an equal amount of length on the back part hidden and pulled through the stay loop retainer.
Look at all the classic male lead actors in movie parts where they are dressed smart. The usual classic look is the Four in Hand. Making a tie knot look as thick as a potato sac is just bad taste in style. It also shows that you are severely out of the loop, so to speak. Also I see one commenter say that he only knows the Windsor knot but cannot tie the Four in Hand. That is like saying he can drive a manual shift transmission but hasn’t learned the automatic transmission yet. Just look at any Youtube instructional video on tying the knots and realize that the Four in Hand is just half of the extra loops around. It’s that simple and looks sharper and in tune with the modern man look and appeal. If you think you still need the Windsor, than you need to get healthy and adjust your diet first.
Good luck,
Mark Seibold, Retired IT Consultant, Awarded and Published Astronomy Artist-Astronomy Educator, Portland Oregon
The four-in-hand knot is not symmetrical, so I don’t agree that it’s always the best.
I suspect that a lot of those knots are half-Windsor knots. It’s much more symmetrical than the four-in-hand.
Half-Windsor although since I first found them, zipper ties have become my favorite.
I generally use a full-Windsor because I like the symmetry and think it looks better. That said, I’d never heard of the Pratt and may need to try it out next time I have reason to wear a tie (which strangely enough isn’t as often as I’d like).
I use a four-in-hand because that’s all I know. Have wanted to learn a full windsor for years now. Maybe this thread will inspire me.
But I want to punch dudes in the throat who wear bow ties. You look ridiculous.
Bolo ties also suck unless you are a legit country boy who wears a cowboy hat everyday.
When I was a wee lad my dad taught me the four-in-hand, so that’s what I tied into my late 20’s. Then I discovered the internet, and the half-Windsor. That’s what I usually go with. If I’m wearing a spread collar, I’ll go full Windsor. I go with a bowtie for my tux, and tie it myself.
If I’m using a tie to secure my wife to the bedposts, I’ll go with a clove and a half-hitch.
I vary based on the tie style, material of the tie, flexibility of the material.
Windsor for me, I think a symmetrical knot looks much better than all the others. I don’t have any trouble making a nice, tight knot with it - no big blob of silk bunched up around my neck.
I only ever tie mine in a Windsor, for a couple reasons:
a) It was how I was first taught to tie a knot, while in USN basic training. It was the only thing from the Navy that stuck (aside from the binge drinking).
b) It’s symmetrical, and I’m an admirer of symmetry, so I never bothered learning to tie a half-Windsor or four-in-hand when I got out of the Navy. And it looks very sharp when properly executed - I see someone with a lopsided knot and my opinion of them goes down a tiny fraction of a tick, regardless of how well put together he is otherwise.
I do make sure to buy ties from finer material, and with a narrower middle section, so as not to make a huge knot, and I tie the knot nice and snug. If you can’t tell if a tie would be good for a full Windsor, any salesperson at a finer men’s furnishings store or department should be able to suggest one. If s/he gives you a blank stare when you ask for a good tie to use with a Windsor knot, find a better store.
A side note: seeing someone wearing a huge knot is almost as annoying as seeing someone with a completely lopsided knot, so if you are so inclined toward a proper tie knot, please learn how to tie one correctly first, and don’t use your grandpa’s knit polyester tie.
I thought I used a Half-windsor, but looking at the diagrams, it turns out I do a Pratt knot. I used to do a four in hand, but sometime around 1995 decided it looked lame.
Ok…just grabbed my nearest tie and went through, and I guess I was right the first time…it’s a half-windsor. I do the ‘switch of sides’ on the half-windsor diagram so subconsciously that I didn’t even realize that’s what I was doing.