Necktie
A variety of neckties tied as if they were on a person. (
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A cravat is the neckband that was the forerunner of the modern tailored necktie. From the end of the 16th century the term "band" applied to any long strip of cloth worn round the neck that was not a "ruff." The ruff itself had started its career in the earlier 16th century as a starched and pleated strip of white linen that could be freshly changed to keep the neck of a doublet from getting increasingly grimy. A "band" could indicate a plain attached shirt collar or a detached "falling band" that draped over the doublet collar.
The modern form of the "cravat" originated in the 1630s. Like most male fashions between the 17th century and World War I, it had a military origin. During the reign of Louis XIII of France, Croatian mercenaries enlisted in a regiment that supported the King and Richelieu against the Duc de Guise and the Queen Mother,Marie de Medici. The traditional outfit of these Croats aroused curiosity in Paris on account of the unusual and picturesque scarves distinctively tied about their necks. The scarves were made of various cloths, ranging from coarse material for common soldiers, to fine linen and silk for officers. The word 'cravat' comes from the French cravate, and many sources state that this is a corruption of "Croat". However there is evidence that the word was in use in France in the 14th Century and in Italy in 16th Century. In one of his ballads, the French writer Eustache Deschamps (c. 1340-1407), used the phrase 'faites restraindre sa cravate' (pull his cravat tighter). What ever the origin of the word the new form of dress became known as a cravate and the French were quite ready to give up the starched linen ruffs, that they had been wearing and adopt the new fashion of loose cravates made of linen or muslin with broad edges of lace.
On his return to England from exile in 1660, Charles II brought with him this new word in fashion:
Cravat
A gentleman's cravat would be made of fine lace. Grinling Gibbons the famous carver and sculptor, made a highly realistic one, carved out of a piece of white limewood.
The universal fashion spread to the colonies across the Atlantic.
During the wars of Louis XIV of 1689 - 1697, the flowing cravat was replaced, except for court occasions, by the more current and equally military Steinkirk, named for the battle in Flanders of 1692. The Steinkirk was a long narrow, plain or lightly trimmed neckcloth worn with military dress, wrapped just once about the neck in a loose knot, with a lace of fringed ends that were twisted together and tucked out of the way into the button-hole (of either a coat or a waistcoat) The steinkirk proved to be popular with both men and women until the 1720s.
The Macaronis reintroduced the flowing cravat in the 1770s and the manner of tying one became a matter of personal taste and style, to the extent that after Waterloo, the neckwear itself was increasingly referred to a a "tie."
Today, neckties are part of the formal clothing of males in both Western and non-Western societies, particularly in business. They have also found their way into the outfits of fashionably trail blazing females. Generally it is a thick swath made from silk or cotton, and is tied around the collar. There are four main knots used. The simplest, the four in hand knot, is probably used by the vast majority of tie wearers. The other three (in order of difficulty) are the Pratt knot (also known as the Shelby knot), the Half-Windsor knot and the Windsor knot. The Windsor knot is named after the Duke of Windsor, although he himself did not use it. The Duke favoured a thick knot and achieved this result by having ties specially made of thicker material. In the late 1990s two researchers (Thomas Fink and Yong Mao) of Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory used mathematical modelling to discover that it is possible to tie 85 different knots with a conventional tie. They found that in addition to the four well-known knots, 6 other knots produced aesthetically pleasing results. Modern Neckties
Vaudeville character actor with tie