Bow Ties

Winston Churchill would have been surprised to learn about Dress for Success author John T. Malloy's attitude towards bow ties. He wrote, “If you wear a bow tie, you will never be taken seriously, and no one will trust you with important business.” But then I've never taken much of what Malloy wrote very seriously.

As you probably know, Churchill wore a navy bow with white dots daily and most people considered World War II to be fairly important business. Dial M for Murder's John Williams has the look down in the photo. The tie should be worn with either a sweater or a vest, to minimize the amount of empty shirt front below the bow (one of the reasons a vest is better than a cummerbund with a dinner jacket), or with a double breasted jacket for the same reason. The look makes a fine change of pace, particularly in warm weather and particularly with a seersucker suit. That may be why bow ties have remained somewhat more popular in the American South than in the rest of the United States.

Most people know that wearing a clip-on bow tie is a sin comparable to crossing one's legs and exposing bare calf above short socks. I've seen speculation that the bow tie is disappearing because most men know not to wear clip-ons but don't know how to tie the real thing. That may well explain the appearance of the four in hand tie at the Academy Awards among male star wanna-bes who have to dress themselves. But tieing a bow is not difficult to learn, requiring a minimum of manual dexterity and perhaps fifteen minutes in front of a mirror with Ben Silver's diagram.

Charvet in Paris makes some of the best bow ties in the world but they don't yet offer them on the web. For some obscure reason, we are fortunate to have several U.S. bow tie specialists with electronic shopping sites. R. Hanauer has made me several ties to order.

With Spring approaching, consider adding a bow tie to your repertoire. It's a fine look for a stylish man.