It's well documented that in 1880, the rowing club at Oxford University 's
Exeter College , invented the first school tie. After an emotional win over
their rivals, they celebrated by removing their ribbon hat bands from their
boater hats and tying them, four-in-hand around their necks. When they ordered a
set of ties, with the colours from their hatbands, they had accidentally created
the modern school tie. School, club, and athletic ties appeared in abundance.
Some schools had different ties for various grades, levels of achievement, and
for graduates. Thanks to historians and their method of accurate documentation
all the original college colours are still available from archived samples and
replicate ties can be made to order.
The four in hand knot used to tie
their hat ribbons, which later became one of the most popular ways to tie a tie
has its own unique origin. Coachman who lead a team of two horses en route would
take the four reins, two for each horse, and tie them in particular fashion
across their hand , thus four reins in hand, or, four in hand. Later the knot
and the phrase the coachman used were adapted to neckwear. Two unrelated
occurrences made contribution to a style that survives in tact to this day. And
interestingly both working class and upper class made equal contribution, the
coachman's phrase and the university student boating hat band.
Let's not
leave Cambridge University out of the race; they also played a part in
establishing an everlasting style, albeit forty five years after the first
Oxford school tie. A Cricket Club, founded by a group of Cambridge University
students in 1845 is believed to have created the first sporting colours. They
designed a flag of black, bright, orange-red, and gold, symbolizing "out of
darkness, through fire, into light." Blazers, caps, and ties were eventually
created in these colours.
It took another one hundred and twenty years
before the tie saw any significant change. In the 1920's a pioneering Paris
fashion designer Jean Patou invented the designer tie. He made silk ties from
women's clothing material. Targeted towards women purchasers, his expensive ties
were highly successful. In fact in America three out of four ties are bought buy
women.
Jesse Langsdorf, an American tailor, discovered that by cutting
the tie on the bias of the cloth, the tie would be much more resilient and long-
wearing. Cut slightly off bias, the tie would pull off-centre and fall
crookedly, but if cut at exactly 45 degrees, the aprons of the tie would drape
elegantly, straight down from the knot. He also constructed his ties using three
different pieces of silk (the blade, the gusset and the under end) sewn
together. He patented his idea and sold it to the world.
Throughout the
ages the striped tie has
remained a favourite style of men who don't want to step outside a conventional
framework. Didn't some one once say "style is constant, fashion comes and goes"?
So maybe the next time you knot your favourite stripe tie four in hand
around your neck, you'll appreciate its colourful history. A word of warning,
when tieing the knot, don't' think too hard about the coachman pulling tight on
the reins, four in hand, you might choke yourself.
Patrick McMurray, a modest business man with a keen interest in the evolution of styles and
progress of fashion through the ages. In particular, the growth and performance of the
silk weaving and silk tie manufacturing industry in England and its continuing survival in the
face of the mass manufacturing revolution. Thanks to electronic communications we can publish articles on the wire, making them immediately available for people with shared interests to learn and respond.
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