Hundred Ways To Tie A Necktie

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Rodney Dangerfield, the incomparable comedian, once joked, “I told my dentist my teeth are going yellow. He told me to wear a

brown necktie.”

A necktie is an object of praise or scorn, depending on your perspective. Nevertheless, the necktie has history behind it,

and the practice of wearing a necktie is unlikely to go away anytime soon. The decorative neck cloth is a badge declaring a

man's status, honor, profession or allegiance, for over two thousand years.

We have China's first Emperor to thank or berate for what is known today as a necktie. It seems the Emperor was so afraid of

dying, he wanted company, lots of it, in the form of some seven thousand of his elite warriors, whom he wished to die with

him, presumably so he wouldn't be alone.

He was eventually persuaded to replicate life-sized statues of each of his men, to be placed around his sarcophagus in an

honor guard. Archaeologists discovered the astonishing tomb in 1974, and were mystified by the Emperor's fantastically large

entourage. The figures were carved in the likeness of each individual, depicted in minute detail according to station and

weapons. What mystified the archaeologists was that every single statue was wearing a silk neck cloth. Not only was silk a

luxury reserved for the wealthy and royalty, but historical records contained no evidence of neck wear in the Emperor's time.

The final conclusion was that the neck cloths indicated the Emperor's final conferral of his highest esteem upon the wearer.

Some three hundred years later, the Roman Emperor Trajan commemorated his troops' magnificent and decisive victory against

his enemy in what is now Romania. He had a marble column built, upon which 2,500 of his warriors are pictured. All wearing a

necktie. As Roman soldiers did not wear neck scarves, historians again concluded this was Trajan's way of honoring his men as

distinguished warriors.

Now, fast-forward to the mid-1600's, when some thousands of Croatian mercenaries journeyed to Paris to demonstrate their

backing of King Louis XIV. Their traditional apparel included a necktie. Yep. Their costumes varied in material, according to

their position, from coarse hemp cloth to silk. The French fell in love with this new fashion item. It soon became all the

rage to wear a necktie.

The wearing of this new accessory spread like wildfire, across Europe and into the Americas. Within ten years of the French

taking up the “cravat”, a necktie, the English were not to be outdone. They

went crazy with enthusiasm, socially imaging a necktie as the mark of a gentleman. The English developed and put to print

almost a hundred ways to tie a necktie.

The rest we know. Today, we have thousands upon thousands of necktie designs. You can choose from a variety of fabrics,

styles and themes. There are neckties to herald your profession, hobbies, religion, politics, humor, military or cult

affiliations.

Even if you hate wearing a necktie, there's got to be something you can love about them!

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