Bow tie

The bow tie originated among Croatian mercenaries during the Thirty Years' War of the 17th century: the Croat mercenaries used a scarf around the neck to hold together the opening of their shirts. This was soon adopted (under the name cravat, derived from the French for "Croat") by the upper classes in France, then a leader in fashion, and flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is uncertain whether the cravat then evolved into the bow tie and four-in-hand necktie, or whether the cravat gave rise to the bow tie, which in turn led to the four-in-hand necktie. The most traditional bow ties are usually of a fixed length and are made for a specific size neck. Sizes can vary between approximately and as with a comparable shirt collar. Fixed-length bow ties are preferred when worn with the most formal wing-collar shirts, so as not to expose the buckle or clasp of an adjustable bow tie. Adjustable bow ties are the standard when the tie is to be worn with a less formal, lie-down collar shirt that obscures the neckband of the tie. "One-size-fits-all" adjustable bow ties are a later invention that helps to moderate production costs. wearing a 19th-century style bow tie The lavallière is a type of cravat similar to the bow tie that was popularly worn in the 19th century in France. It is of a similar fashion to the bow tie but has a larger knot and drooping ends. ==Wearers==

{{Quote Popular perception tends to associate bow tie wearers with particular professions, such as architects, debt collectors, attorneys, university professors, teachers, waiters, and politicians. Pediatricians frequently wear bow ties, for infants cannot grab them the way they could grab a four-in-hand necktie. Bow ties do not readily droop into places where they would get soiled or where they could, whether accidentally or deliberately, strangle the wearer. Clowns sometimes use an oversized bow tie for comic effect. Classical musicians traditionally perform in white tie or black tie ensembles, of which both designs are bow ties. Bow ties are also associated with weddings, mainly because of their almost universal inclusion in traditional formal evening-wear. Bow ties, or slight variations thereof, have also made their way into women's wear, especially business attire. The 1980s saw professional women, especially in law, banking, and the corporate world, donning very conservative tailored suits, with a rise of almost 6 million units in sales. These were often worn with buttoned-up blouses, some with pleats up the front like tuxedo shirts, and accessorized with bow ties that were slightly fuller than the standard bow ties worn by their male counterparts, but typically consisting of the same fabrics, colors, and patterns as men's ties. Russell Smith, style columnist for Toronto's The Globe and Mail, records mixed opinions of bow tie wearers. He observed that bow ties were experiencing a potential comeback among men, though "the class conscious man recoils at the idea" of pre-tied bow ties and "[l]eft-wingers ... recoil at what they perceive to be a symbol of political conservatism." He argues that anachronism is the point, and that bow tie wearers are making a public statement of their disdain for changing fashion. Such people may not be economic conservatives, he argues, but they are social conservatives. In Smith's view, the bow tie is "the embodiment of propriety", an indicator of fastidiousness, and "an instant sign of nerddom in Hollywood movies", but "not the mark of a ladies' man" and "not exactly sexy". He attributes the building of this image to the association of the bow tie with newspaper editors (because of their fastidiousness with words), high-school principals, and bachelor English teachers. Most men, he observes, only wear bow ties with formal dress. ==Types==

Self-tie There are usually two shapes of self-tie bow ties available: the "bat wing", which is parallel-sided like a cricket bat, and the "thistle", also known as the "butterfly". An example of each can also be seen below. Which is worn is a matter of personal preference. Some other shapes do exist; for instance, the Diamond Point, with pointed tips at both ends. This is a double-ended type, with both ends shaped, though occasionally, ties are tied in the single-ended type, in which only one end flares out to give the batwing or thistle shape, and the other remains thin. To tie one of these requires careful consideration, to ensure the broader end finishes in front of the thinner one. File:2 Silk Bow Ties.JPG|Silk bow ties. Fixed length with "thistle" ends (left) and adjustable with "bat wing" ends (right). File:Yellow self tie cotton bow tie, designed and made in the UK.jpg|Bright Yellow patterned self-tie bow tie, made of cotton, designed and made in the UK File:Bowtie Butterfly.jpg|Bow tie, type Butterfly, silk File:Bowtie Batwing.jpg|Bow tie, type Batwing, wool File:Bowtie Diamond.jpg|Bow tie, type Diamond Point, silk Pre-tie Shown below on the right is one style of pre-tie/ready-tie bow tie. Wearing a ready-tied bow tie at formal occasions requiring a black or white tie dress code is usually considered a faux pas, though at occasions such as Schools Leavers' Proms or ones at which the participants are unlikely to have had much experience wearing bow ties, it may be commonplace. As shown in the pictures below, another type of ready-tie bow tie is the wooden bow tie, a fairly new product made mostly in the U.S and Canada. Other materials are also in use. An example would be bow ties that are made of natural bird feathers; this too is a fairly new product made mostly in the U.S. and Europe (in Poland). File:BOWTIE red velvet pretied clipon.JPG|A pre-tied bow tie File:Colourful Bow tie.jpg|Informal bow tie File:Wooden bow tie 1.jpg|Wooden bow tie, made in Canada and U.S File:IMG Z9805.jpg|Bow tie made of feathers, made in Poland Clip-on A clip-on does not go around the neck but clips directly to the collar points. These are sometimes referred to as ‘Lido Grip’ bow ties due to the type of clip technology used in them, these were common in the 1950s and 1960s. Continental or crossover A continental tie, also called a crossover tie, is a type of bow tie partly covered by the dress shirt collar. ==Gallery==

File:Elio Di Rupo 2012.jpg|Elio Di Rupo, former Prime Minister of Belgium, is a regular wearer of bow ties. File:Prof. Marcello Ferrada de Noli - 2007.jpg|Marcello Ferrada de Noli, professor emeritus, Sweden, frequently wears self-tied bow ties. File:Johan Krouthén - Självporträtt 1904.jpg|Johan Krouthén wearing a 19th-century style bow tie. File:Portrait of Fritz Albert Lipmann (1899-1986), Biochemist (2551001689).jpg|Professor Fritz Albert Lipmann, Harvard Medical School, wore a self-tied bow tie. File:MichaelMaxey2.jpg|Michael Maxey, president of Roanoke College, is well known for wearing bow-ties. File:Bill Nye with trademark blue lab coat and bowtie.jpg|Bill Nye, on his show, wore a powder blue lab coat and bow tie. File:Pee-Wee Herman (1988).jpg|Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman wore a trademark red bow tie. File:Donald Tsang WEF.jpg|Donald Tsang, former Chief Executive of Hong Kong, is well known for wearing self-tied bow ties. ==References==