The giant tie knot — last widely seen in the disco era — is making a comeback.
Spurred by the popularity of spread-collar shirts and thicker "seven-fold" neckties, the reappearance of big knots has some men weighing the look — and others fumbling in front of the mirror to master the tricky Windsor knot.
The most common American necktie knot — and the one most men learned from their fathers — is the four-in-hand, which involves passing the tie through a loop twice.
But getting a bigger knot typically means learning a new tying style — most often, the Windsor knot, also known as a full Windsor or double Windsor, which requires three passes through the loop. (The half-Windsor, which is tied with a double loop, isn't as effective at producing a big knot.) First-timers at this are likely to see messy results on their first few tries.
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The Windsor knot first caught on in the United States in the 1930s after a visit by the Duke of Windsor. The duke himself, it turns out, produced his big knots by wearing ties specially made by Britain's Turnbull & Asser that were so thick that he didn't actually need to tie a Windsor. The triple-loop knot nevertheless became known as a Windsor.
In the United States, the groundwork for this trend was laid three years ago, when more men started ditching their ties altogether and buying shirts with short, wide collars known as spread collars. Long the collar of choice in Britain and Italy, this style looks better unbuttoned than a collar that points down. Men who still wore ties soon started snapping up these shirts, too.
As spread collars gained momentum — they're now the fastest-growing collar style in dress shirts, according to Phillips-Van Heusen, the world's largest shirt maker — tie makers saw an opportunity to push heftier ties with heftier price tags. Since these ties make bigger knots no matter how they're tied, they do a better job of filling the wider gap of a spread collar. Sales of ties costing $100 or more, which tend to be heavier and produce thicker knots, rose 41 percent in the 12 months that ended Jan. 31, compared with flat sales for ties costing less, according to market researcher NPD Group.
Now all you need to know is how to tie the knot.
how to make a Windsor Knot
knot for all men
• "If you have a small frame or if you are on the short side, a big knot will overpower you," says stylist Clinton Kelly, co-host of TLC's "What Not to Wear."
• Big men with large heads also should avoid supersizing their knots so they don't look even wider, says Glenn Laiken, an image consultant and designer in Culver City, Calif., whose clients include Dr. Phil and Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson.
• Big knots and spread-collar shirts work best with wide jacket lapels for a sense of proportion, says image consultant Carolyn Gustafson, who has offices in New York and North Carolina.
