Two Tips on Ties

Here are a couple of tried and tested tips for tying ties. Apologies for the excessive alliteration.

I’m a fan of a nice, large dimple in a tie. Two reasons: I think it adds a certain lustre to the silk to be pulled in thus, and the added tension helps keep the tie in place, taut and a little pushed out.

I’m sure most are familiar with how, basically, to achieve a dimple (if not, please inform me in the comments section and I’ll do my best to describe it). However, I always found difficulty in achieving a consistent dimple in the middle of the tie. It would always verge over the one side and eventually, as a result, disappear. I also found that a decent dimple in the early stages of tying would seem to disappear in a similar way by the time it was tightened up to the collar.

So, two tips. First, lay out your tie on a flat, hard surface and estimate the two or three inches that pass through the knot during tying (perhaps hold it up to your body to discover this). Then, fold the tie along these two or three inches in half, with the front of the tie on the inside. Press gently along the fold with your fingers, or leave a heavy object on it briefly.

When you pick the tie back up again, there will be a visible fold down the blade. That will fade after a short while, but the lining of tie retains the fold. Because it is often a thinner silk or a canvas, it is more easily distorted. So when you next pull the tie taut, it will naturally return to that halfway fold, creating a perfectly placed dimple. The effect is also reinforced over time – the more a tie is tied with that dimple, the more easily it will return to it.

Second tip: always secure the knot and its dimple completely before pulling on the thinner blade to bring it up to the collar. Otherwise the dimple is likely to be loosened on the way up.

When you have pulled the wider blade under, over and down through the knot, let it hang for a second to pinch it ready to create the dimple. Then tighten the knot by pulling both the wider blade and the knot downwards – it is slightly counter intuitive to pull the knot down, as it will eventually go up again, but pulling it down thus will tighten it far better for the journey up to the collar.

One more tip, even though it does bring the total to three and spoil the alliteration: if your knot is a little too thin for your liking, try looping the wider blade over once more (in a four-in-hand knot this is) than usual. It makes less difference than you’d think, but just enough to satisfy.

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Stripe Stereotypes: Show Your Stripes

What do your stripes say about you?  Whether I like it or not, the striped cotton creations I purchase on Jermyn Street do reveal a good deal about my character. For instance, my preference for old, ordered patterns - akin almost to Regency stripe wallpaper from Sanderson - exposes my love of the classical and the old-fashioned. Similarly, my reluctance to wear outrageously thick stripes or stripes of acidic tone, reveals my cautiousness and lack of daring. Anyone analysing my striped collection of shirts would judge me an aesthetically traditional conservative, and this is, without doubt, the most correct observation one can make. Even when my shirts do veer slightly from the classically hued Corinthian columned variety into something perhaps a little more exotic in tone, slightly more experimental in pattern, I tend to tone down the daring with a sober tie.

Stripes, so long a pattern of camouflage, can actually be terribly revealing; to expose your bias and make naked your idiosyncrasies. I admit, there is an awful lot of scope for generalisation on this topic. Of course there will be those who purchase a great range of stripes and who have the mightiest sartorial capacity; no style being off limits, no stripe too thin, too bright or too wide. However, I do find when I am casually eavesdropping in the bustle of a noisy shirt maker on Jermyn Street that people do have their ’types’ when it comes to ‘stripes’: “It’s not really me that one…”; “Nope, sorry - I’ll do pink, but not pink stripes”; “Hah, I’ll look like a butcher in that!” Opinions on the thousands of stripe designs that flood the ever popular high-end shirt market can frequently be heard if standing within earshot and the one thing that strikes me is how judgmental stripe buyers can be. Purchasing stripes, it seems, is rather political. An old gentleman in a covert coat when offered a pink and black natty looking model, straight from the style books of Etro or Paul Smith, might look askance at the shop assistant as if they were an Etonian who had just been offered an Old Harrovian tie.

The peer


As one of the few remaining hereditary members of the House of Lords, the peer is keeping up appearances for all aristocrats across Albion. In the good old days, the unelected House members could dash into their seats for a chat and a quick vote and be off to White’s or Pratt’s before three - all in the tailored, but evidently ancient, clothing they wore the day before. Bengal and Regency stripes are the general rule for the peer and the old made to measure cloths are making way for ’adjusted’ versions timidly suggested by Timothy at Turnbull & Asser. Healthy looking blues with feint touches of white and red are emblematic of his renewed patriotism and the only exception; an uncharacteristic Satsuma-tinted Bengal, which has become his favourite shirt: the result of a rather flattering comment by a particularly ambitious young female on his staff.

The Islington ‘media type’


The Islington ‘media type’ doesn’t really like Jermyn Street. It’s just not the sort of place he’d wish to be seen in. Duchamp, Interno8 and Paul Smith are more likely to receive his carefully bestowed custom and conveniently, they are all located just a liberal hop, skip and jump away from his Soho offices, on the other side of Regent Street. Traditionalists might refer to his multi-striped shirts as ’busy’, but he rather believes that his style of stripe is a future design classic. As one of the several head-honchos in a powerful P.R. firm, he has the influence, and the cash, to adapt his oh-so-Noughties office furniture to his taste for the nouveau stripe; even his Apple Mac is designed by Paul Smith.

The City trader


The City trader is a happy chap - he’s just been promoted in his department at the establishment investment bank where he has worked for 15 years. Patience and hard work seem to have paid off and his ‘matey mates’ are very impressed with his quick ascension, if a little surprised; it must be the first time a happy go lucky charmer from an inner city comprehensive has risen so quickly at such an old-school-tie bank. In celebration of his promotion, a few dozen shirts were purchased on a visit to Jermyn Street. In reverence to the affably arrogant management at the crusty bank, he decides upon a number of generously striped items considering it’ll make him look, as he put it, “more like a toff.”

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Styles for Shorter Gentleman: Jimmy Au’s

When it comes to shorter men, finding well-tailored and well-designed clothes in styles that also enhance stature are not always easy to come by. In the business arena, clothing plays a key role because it can influence how others see you - tall or short, slim or wide. Perception, as usual, is king.

Based in Beverly Hills, Jimmy Au’s for Men 5’8” and Under, is an industry leader in tailored clothing for shorter gentlemen. Au is recognized as the leading authority in the men’s fashion industry when it comes to developing and designing quality clothing for shorter men. He is renowned for his uncompromising dedication to dressing shorter gentlemen and his store is where leading Hollywood studios turn for their television and motion picture wardrobe needs.

Alan Au, the founder’s son and company’s client relations director, spoke with www.OffTheCuffDC.com and outlined his key rules for dressing with style and increasing visual height. Although the average man in the United States is 5′9″, the average height of Jimmy Au’s customer is 5′4″. Alan, is also credited with encouraging his father to work with leading menswear brands like Michael Kors, DKNY, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Kenneth Cole to produce tailored fashion for men under 5′5″.

Show your stripes… While some fashion designers are abandoning these vertical enhancements, if you want to look taller at work, you need to consider stripes. Choose stripes of a thinner variety like beaded or pinstripes. Choose stripes where the width between stripes best balances your frame. ¼” to ¾” should be sufficient. The wider your frame, the wider the stripe option, however, any wider than ¾” and you’ll begin to look squat. Stay away from thick or wide stripes like chalk stripes or alternating colored stripes. The lighter color will dominate causing the width to visually double and, again, make you look squat.

Well suited… When trying on a suit, stand close to the mirror and take a good to see if it flatters you. Then, stand back about 5 to 10 feet from the mirror to get a visual sense of how others will see you in a typical day to day situation. Make sure you can see you in the suit and not just the suit. If only the suit looks good but not you in it, then pass.

The skinny on ties… Fashion designers seem to be split when it comes to tie widths. Some are going much wider while others are slimming down. For the short man, it’s best to go narrow. Not because it’s trendy, but because it’s more proportioned for a shorter frame. A ties that is 2 ½” to 3 ¼” at its widest point should be enough. Anything that will add width to your midsection will also make you look shorter, so stay away from the wide bib-looking ties. Narrower ties look more balanced and the effect will make you look better proportioned; which in turn makes you look taller.

Wear a shirt, not a chute… When you are less than 5′8″, the baggy shirt from the 1990s is an unwanted fashion statement in 2008. Even regular sized shirts are baggy on a shorter frame and that fullness makes you look like you’re wearing your older brother’s hand-me-downs. Choose a more trim European inspired fit with higher armholes and a slimmer body. These trimmer cuts can easily be shortened to fit your body and arms. Fuller cuts require more work from a skilled tailor.

Here comes the hammer… Pants that is! Some designers are showing pleated, full cut dress pants again. Avoid this look at all costs. Stick to more traditional cuts, preferably with a flat front and short rise. It’s not that you can’t wear pleated pants; just not ones that make you look like a B-movie genie. If you prefer a pleated pant because you have thick thighs or wide hips, stick to shallower pleats. You can have the extra width you need without having the extra depth you don’t; proportion is key. Regardless, making sure you purchase pants with a short rise greatly increases the likelihood of a proper fit.

The golden rule… The number one rule, no matter what the current fashion trend, is to have your clothes altered by a good tailor. This rule applies to men of all heights, but is particularly important to us short guys. Because of our shorter stature, most everything is big on us, which in turn makes us look even shorter.

Common sense proportions take on added importance for short men. Ensure that coat and shirt sleeves are the right length and that coat bottoms are not too long. Pant hems should never be too long nor pant legs too wide. Details matter even more for short men, particularly when the details are what can make or break your overall image.

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Silhouette and Fit: Know the Difference

A suit with massive shoulders, tiny waist or short trousers does not necessarily fit badly. It just has a bad silhouette. It is important to understand the difference.

The shoulders of your suit, for example, may end exactly at the edge of your actual shoulders, continuing in one smooth line down the rest of the sleeve. They may, alternatively, extend an extra half an inch to an inch. The line of the shoulders may be square and straight; they may be concave, curving down from the collar and then rising toward the outer edge; they may even be slightly convex.

Any of these styles may fit perfectly. If the shoulders are to extend slightly beyond your actual shoulders, and have a square, boxy line, they will require extra padding and support. If they are to curve naturally and with a slightly concave line, they will need to be carefully aligned with the line of your own shoulders, lest these ruin that line.

The point is, these variations create a different silhouette. They do not necessarily fit better or worse than the alternatives. Silhouette is more akin to colour or pattern – it is a personal choice, but one that can still be made badly (or, to be more generous, unsuitably).

The relationship between these two continues around the rest of the suit. The waist, for example, may be designed to be more or less pinched, creating a more or less defined skirt. If the suit is designed to have a generous waist, but you buy a smaller size to try and achieve a pinched waist, the wool will ripple with complaint when you button up the jacket. You have confused fit and silhouette – in trying to achieve the latter, you have failed in the former.

It is also likely to fit worse elsewhere, as you are deliberately buying a size too small. Your shoulders will press against the sleevehead. The back will feel constricting.

If the suit were designed to have a pinched waist, the wool would be darted, with slivers of material taken out and sewn back up again. The shoulders and back would fit fine and you would have achieved your desired look.

Silhouette is about what a suit is designed to look like. Fit is about whether a particular size of that design fits to your body. Don’t confuse the two. Be aware of what the suit and its designer are trying to do. Then judge its fit.

- As an addendum, a few quotes from Nicholas Antongiavanni about silhouettes: “Designer suits may be gargantuan or minimalist. With these it is not so much their level of comfort that fails you but their lack of harmony. A jacket that fits perfectly but is ridiculous in silhouette is useless, even more so than a jacket tasteful and sophisticated in silhouette that does not fit; for in the latter case in may be altered whereas the former is always harmful.

“When he said to me that the Americans do not understand fit, I replied to him that the French do not understand the silhouette, because if they understood they would not wear such square-shouldered, box-hipped, skin-tight jackets. The greatness of the English and the Italians as dressers is caused by their silhouettes, and France’s ruin caused by theirs. And because of Americans’ obsession with fashion, many of these have spread to our shores.”

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The Allure of Tweed

I was flicking through an extremely large volume on vintage fashions when I visited my parents at the old homestead for Easter, and though my flicking was casual and intended for pleasure alone, I began to appraise the pages as though a student; I started to notice patterns and similarities. Between the Edwardian ladies with their bicycles and straw hats and the late Victorian country gentlemen with their shotguns and deerstalkers, there were few similarities. In nearly all respects, they represented the very ’Mars & Venus’ stereotype that defines and separates the sexes; the gruff, brawny hunters and the delicate ladies of fashion. However, fabric seemed to be an area they could agree on. One fabric at least. For there was, in those days, a great preponderance of tweed in clothing.

Tweed now has neither the status nor the broad appeal it once boasted. Like other British institutions; the Lyons Popular Tea Room, the music hall or the pier, it has faded into that sepia world of yesterday. It seems to have been pushed into premature retirement to appear alongside shortbread biscuits, raspberry jam and Earl Grey tea in English Heritage gift shops.

A great shame this is, for tweed is one of the most practical and sensible fabrics ever made. Moisture resistant and extremely warm, for those wishing to spend time outdoors without Gore-tex, tweed is a wonderful material. And, though very much a country fabric, in these days of leisure clothing, tweed is seen as an equally smart alternative to finished wool fabrics in a metropolitan context. A good friend of mine frequently adds his Harris tweed jacket to his casual shirt and trouser ensembles to great effect.

If tweed has any status, it is that of a material favoured by the aristocracy. This is hardly surprising, considering the aristocracy are frequently those in possession of large estates, on which outdoor activities take place. A snobbery has been attached to the wearing of tweed in recent years; an inverted strain. Anyone wearing tweed is likely to be seen as a ’tweedy’ person; an assertion which does the fabric a disservice. Characters of all kinds have worn, and will continue to wear, tweed. Taking the decision to ignore the extraordinary negative stereotyping and add this most majestic material to the wardrobe requires an open mind and a little consideration of purpose.

The tweed suit

If you are planning to go the whole hog and look into the purchase of a complete tweed suit, you are to be saluted. I rarely see tweed, worn in such volume, on one person. It is magnificent, but would require a good deal of research. Harris Tweed is perhaps the most famous tweed available, although there are those that consider the loss of the old methods of hand spinning and natural dying to be detrimental to the quality of the fabric and the brand. If you prefer your whisky with an ‘e’, you might consider that Donegal tweed, Ireland’s answer to Harris, is the fabric of choice. Donegal tweed is hand woven and naturally dyed from the flora surrounding the sheep on the hills of Donegal, Ulster; moss, berries and fuchsia providing some of the colours. I always think it would be sensible to go for a three-piece suit.

The tweed jacket

Tweed jackets are an excellent odd jacket to be worn casually. They are perfect for a weekend away from the city, although having said that, they never look out of place as daywear in the metropolis. Choosing a tweed style depends largely on personality. I myself, being of a somewhat unrestrained and egotistical nature, might choose a rather brightly checked tweed, although friends of mine with a taste for something a little more subtle, might choose a quiet tone-on-tone check or a simple brown herringbone. If you are selecting a check, I think it advisable to keep to Breanish or Harris as the light weight Border tweeds are particularly fuddy-duddy; redolent of school teachers and retirees.

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