# Was it ever fashionable to wear a short tie?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-ever-fashionable-to-wear-a-short-tie/1034660>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Tags:** fashion-clothing\
**Created:** [November 7, 2026, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-ever-fashionable-to-wear-a-short-tie/1034660 "2026-11-07T15:03:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![billy-jack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@billy-jack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billy-jack)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2026, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-ever-fashionable-to-wear-a-short-tie/1034660/21 "2026-11-08T00:02:16Z")

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> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> There was some place near the border, where males had to wear a tie, so Dad & I wore bolo ties- which were acceptable. I can not see that working anywhere but in “cowboy country” however.

Bolo ties are the only ties I wear any more. I have several.

What I would really like is a bolo tie with a Luther Rose on it. I have looked but never found one.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2026, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-ever-fashionable-to-wear-a-short-tie/1034660/23 "2026-11-08T00:17:56Z")

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> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> In that era it was also fairly common for men wearing a tie to tuck the end inside their shirt between two of the upper-middle buttons. It was even the officially correct uniform wear for the US Army for awhile. e.g. **[US army uniform men’s tie tucked into dress shirt - Google Image Search](https://www.google.com/search?q=US+army+uniform+men%27s+tie+tucked+into+dress+shirt&hl=en&udm=2&uact=5&oq=US+army+uniform+men%27s+tie+tucked+into+dress+shirt&sclient=gws-wiz-img)**.

That’s good when your job involves working with things with lots of moving parts. You don’t want a tie dangling loose where it can get caught in machinery.

> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Given the diameter of the wearer’s neck and choice of knot, the shortest the visible tail can be is with the two tails of equal length. And the longest the visible tail can be is with the hidden tail as short as it can be without disappearing up into the knot causing the knot to fall apart.

It also depends on what knot you’re using. Some knots, especially the more elaborate ones, use more length than others.

> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> There was some place near the border, where males had to wear a tie, so Dad & I wore bolo ties- which were acceptable. I can not see that working anywhere but in “cowboy country” however.

I recently visited my old high school, where the boys are required to wear ties, and one was getting away with a bolo tie. Of course, we were always pushing the boundaries of the dress code.

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