(from DFOF’s own collection)
Manolo, one of DFOF’s favourite fashion bloggers, has a fine piece on the dastardly evil that is the pre-tied bow tie.
Pre-Tied Bowties: Why Not Just Wear Sweatpants?
He picks up on the Oscars, and gives John Travolta a basting and grilling
It is indeed sad state of affairs, then, when the same knot used for your shoelaces cannot be successfully duplicated on the necks of dozens of grown men at an event known for its clothing and televised for millions of viewers.
Dear John Travolta, I ask you. I ask your stylists. I ask the designer who probably gave you that tuxedo. How did you decide on a pre-tied bowtie? And how did you decide on the most awful, symetrical, perfect, bowtie the world has ever seen?
Tying a bow-tie takes a little practice, but thanks to youtube, you too can learn how. This alone justifies youtube’s existence.
For those that would prefer words and diagrams, Barrybrake does a fine job here.
DFOF agrees wholeheartedly with Barry’s point.
Disheveled formal clothes tell an entire story, compacted into a single and powerful image. So the act of disheveling them becomes a ritual itself, and it produces a frisson that is irreplaceable.
With one key proviso.
Important notice.
The untied bow-tie only works late, very late of an evening, typically as the birds tweeting in the trees signals dawn. As another fine fashion blog, go fug yourself, notes.
I’m probably supposed to think it’s charming to show up with the bow tie undone, hanging languidly against your popped-open shirt which reveals just enough of what looks like a freshly waxed and/or lubed-up chest; I’m sure you expect me to think it’s all just effortlessly cool, suave, and macho. But here’s the thing: I don’t. I find it pretentious, John Legend.
That’s right. I said it. You’re trying very hard not to try, and it shows. Your paradox bores and annoys me. I feel like you’re standing there quietly urging me to think you delicious and sex-on-legs because you couldn’t be bothered to do up the tie, and yet, all I can think of is how smarmy you were in your red-carpet interview and how much thought I suspect you put into this, and how many man-hours you spent staring at yourself in the mirror cocking your finger guns at your own reflection before you decided that leaving your second-storey barn door halfway open (with the deadbolt undone to boot) was really tantalizing.
Arriving with the bow-tie undone may also leave you in the potentially embarrassing position of having someone ask you to do it up
Do not forget that a bow-tie is safer than a tie. Yep safer.
On the factory floor of one of my early LBO’s, a can factory, I leaned over an interesting-looking machine and was millimetres away from getting strangled by a dangling tie.
Since then I was only wearing a work-safety-approved bow-tie!
Dear DFOF,
I love a bow tie; it always seems to me to be the unpretensious alternative to the cravat (which seems so much harder to get right).. but how do you wear it during the day without looking like a teacher..? please advise.
Dear Emma C,
A tough question. I think we need to get adult supervision, and ask the sartorialist or Manolo….
I found some great all silk and good stripes bow ties cheap online two years ago. I began wearing them for fun. I teach I.T. to kids K to 8th grade. Well the kids loved them and so last year I had about seventy bows and threw out all my four in hand ties forever. Well now it seems they are the in thing this season. Several mens’ journals like “Esquire” and “GQ” are saying that the bow tie is back. I will enjoy sharing this fact with some of my eighth grade girls who told me they look nerdy. Check out buyyourties.com and thetiebar.com for some really good quality bows for like fifteen bucks. One drawback is that pattern shirts are out. Back to solids or pin stripes only. I also advise you get new shirts with slightly larger collars. It’s tricky to wear a “loosened” bow.
I have been wanting a bow tie for several years. Last week I wore one of three I bought. At the end of the day, my neck was not uncomfortable, the tie did not get caught in anything like a four-in-hand, and my economics students thought it “very cool”