This is not meant to be comprehensive or even particularly illuminating, but it is my viewpoint on bow ties. Feel free to disabuse me of misconceptions.
I first wore bowties in Puerto Rico as all young people I knew did- for a “quinceañero” (15 year old debutante ball). I wore bow ties several times again in secondary school. They were always black and worn with a tuxedo for a formal event. So there was the connotation of a "costume" effect to wearing a bow tie.

The first time I saw a person in a real working environment wearing a bowtie was at a surgical conference during medical school. There was a French surgeon wearing a paisley bow tie. I asked him why he was wearing it and he said it was for practical reasons. The bow tie did not flop into the wound when you bent over to examine the patient. Of course, you can tuck the tie in between the buttons of your shirt, but if you are not thinking quickly and neglect to rinse your hands after taking off the surgical gloves you ruin the tie with the glove powder on your hands. Of course, soup and sauce can have the same effect. I ruined a lot of ties like this. Hearing him was the first time I thought of the bowtie not as a decorative element, but as having practical applications.

So here is what I think about bowties after having worn them regularly for years.
The two principal distinguishing features of the bow tie are: they do not cover a lot of surface area, and the knot does not slip.

Because the knot does not slip, when wearing the bowtie you are all in.  There are no intermediate steps such as slipping the knot on the necktie and undoing the top shirt button signifying that you are either “hard at work” of just starting to party for real. When you undo the bowtie it looks like the party is about over for you. That has its own kind of appeal, but not early on in the proceedings. Until the right moment you look like the last one to get the clue.

The small surface area of the bowtie is a biggie because so much follows from it.

Proportion- wingspan. I can always tell a bowtie newbie because the wings are spread too wide. This stems from the difficulty in holding your elbows flexed at the same time you are using fine hand muscle control to pass the wings through the knot and create the bowtie. It is much easier when you give yourself more length in the wings. But you pay the price with a vaguely clownish wingspan. Worse yet, if the fabric is a fine silk designed for billowing, what you get instead is a frankly comic wilting of the wings as you extend laterally. When I see short wings I presume the guy knows what he is doing. And I appreciate the effort whether it succeeds esthetically or not.

Proportion- height  The necktie covers a lot of surface area, but it has the good sense to know its place: below the neckline, giving pride of place to the neck and face. The bowtie is a trickier agent because it competes with the neck when it focuses attention on itself. For this reason a bowtie with a lot of wingspan height has to strike the perfect tone other wise it is too successful in sending the wrong signal about the neck’s owner. It should be worn with panache, and a lot of savoir-faire. Needless to say, I don’t own one. A slim (1 ½”) bowtie can also call too much attention to its minimalist surface area by conveying the sense that something is missing. A pre tied slim bowtie can make you look like an old fashioned ice cream soda parlor salesman. Worn with a very clean line austere suit it can look quite sharp. I own a couple and they are very retro in appearance but it works well in a medical office. Almost all my ties are 2 ½” tall, which is considered nowadays medium height.


Volume- The bowtie should convey a sense of volume to make up for its small surface area. Pre-tied bowties are often criticized for being too symmetrical, but I think this is an incomplete explanation for their perceived lack of character. Rather it is because the wing edges are pressed too flat and the front wings are lined up perfectly behind the front wings giving the pre-tied bowtie a flat two dimensional pictorial quality. The  freshly created bend at the wing edges and irregular relation between front and back wings convey a more visually interesting three dimensional prescence. Fine silk bowties give a more billowy, flamboyant impression whereas woven silk gives a more sculpted look. I don’t get tweed bowties, it seems more like a gimmick, but I am no expert, just an interested amateur. The problem with the heavier fabrics is that the knot area becomes too bulky for my taste. Silk knit bow ties are the worst of both worlds. They are too thick, and wilt too easily unless they have a really short wingspan. Then they look like the bow ties on a Ken (Barbie's boyfriend) doll.

Color - A loud colored necktie, because of its large surface area is just LOUD. A loud colored bowtie, because of its small surface area is just full of personality. It doesn't overstep its bounds unless we're talking about a tall wing bow tie. Conversely, a subtle color plays well with a white shirt or an assertive shirt. The key is maintaining the right amount of contrast.  I prefer reds, pinks and purples because they are easy to pair off with any suit or sport coat.  Maybe it’s just me but I just have one yellow bowtie. I grab it often but it hardly ever makes the cut.

Pattern- Right now I’m on a paisley kick. The older faded or subtler paisleys and the newer neon colored paisleys both work well on a bowtie because they get more interesting as you get closer. Plaid patterns look too summery for me, and anyways in the summer I’m more partial to bold stripe patterns. Stripe patterns (other than bold) are OK, but I only own club stripes (my club, med school, college, my kids colleges, etc.) and wear them only to appropriate events. Floral and medallion patterns are great too for bow ties, they also work well because they are hard to overdo on a bow tie and do not risk boring by repetition.  As a matter of fact it is hard to overdo it on color of pattern on a bowtie. Except of course the color orange, and large polka dots.

Finally, a couple of thoughts, the first on fashion. Whether they are hip or not it doesn’t matter when you are my age. Whenever I step into a taxi, the question I get asked most often is “Are you a professor?” Secondly, thought about practicality: having a bowtie on your sport coat pocket is the most practical thing you can do when on a day out in the city. It takes up very little space and it can be whipped out at a second's notice to dress up the most pedestrian of outfits. Even when you fail miserably, you will still impress as everybody will assume you are a distinguished professor with far weightier things on your mind than fashion. Better yet, you won't worry about spilled wine or sauce as you cast pearls amongst the swine.

Last edited by Chévere (2014-11-28 06:25:19)