Three inch neckties like the cashmere on the left in the photo are the new size for fall on the Drakes London website (that's the larger size on the right). Or, as Michael Drake tells it, "The 8 cm shape is a move on from the classic 9 cm but is not in any way extreme." And he is not alone as Hermes has done the same thing, offering 3" ties as a standard width after a hiatus of decades.
Now necktie widths are supposed to relate to jacket lapels and it has to be stressful for necktie designers to place these width bets. After all, the lapels on the jackets already in men's closets aren't about to change, so a new width has to be evolutionary in order to preserve the market for neckties purchased to go with that glen check that arrived just last spring.
Gentlemen's neckties have ranged from a bit less than three inches to nearly four since World War II, but we haven't seen the narrower end of the range for three decades. And though it took a long time to go from narrow to wide, the collapse in size has taken place in just a few years. Blame the Italians.
Nonetheless, Michael is right. The narrower width is not extreme. I like it. And it gives me justification to take out a couple dozen well-loved three inch ties that have been patiently waiting their turn in the bottom of a drawer downstairs.
8 cm is the new 9 cm.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
"8 Cm is the New 9 Cm"
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13 comments:
As a shorter guy, I'm glad to see this trend. The 4 inch ties look ridiculous on anyone shorter than 6'2".
Hopefully we'll see some of the bigger stores pick up on this.
I'd like to see a variety maintained. I wear a 46L suit and have an 18" neck, so thinner ties don't often suit me well. I never wear a four-in-hand, the knot being much to small. I prefer the St. Andrew. I like the 3.5" blade best.
Personally, I really dislike the narrower ties. I am 6'5" and 230 lbs. I wear lots of d.b. suits (2 over 4) and many s.b. peak lapel suits and have a real aversion for the narrow width ties. When I wear one, it looks like I have either a "bolo" tie or a shoelace around my neck. For those of you in my boat, Mimmo Spano's boutique on the 6th floor in Saks NY and Alan Flusser have not gone over to the dark side with respect to necktie withs.
Excellent...short person like myself will have luck finding ties that don't make me look like a clown now.
I am wearing a 7 cm tie as we speak. :-) I am tall and thin, and have always enjoyed this tie, trend in and trend out. Though it is the only tie that narrow in my arsenal.
I'm assuming the measurement in question is made at the widest part of the tie. correct? Is there a way to understand the rest of the tie's width in relation to the widest point. They should create a ratio of some sort where one can judge not only the width but how that width carries itself throughout the length of the tie. make sense?
It's funny, but since the tie market is mostly dominated by Italian manufacturers you're so right to put the blame on them. They produce ties for the RTW suit market. Lapel widths vary too often lately. The tie manufacturers generally follow them.
BTW, most discerning Italian gentlemen prefer English ties like Drake and H&B. I have never seen a bespoke suit in Italy with overly wide lapels. Some gentlemen, have 'generational' wardrobes, not just seasonal ones. These are suits, maybe thirty years old, that look cutting edge (in a classic men's sense)or brand new. When knit ties returned to popularity (not fad), these guys had them already. They'd never dream of allowing their sons (usually in their 40's or even 50's) touching their clothes. Over their dead bodies, so to speak.
Never throw out an old tie...it will be perfect in 30 years!
Sorry...should you happen to be in Rome and would like a bespoke tie with the perfect length, width fabric and hand for roughly 100 euro or 150USD currently check out Pellicano'. He is a pleasant fellow in a small shop next to the Pantheon. While your wife, walks into the Pantheon, you slip off left 90 degrees to the via from the columns. Look through the tie drawers. I love the drawers specific for ties.
As a slim, short guy I, too am glad to hear this.
Call me a novice, but what does the size of the lapels have to do with the width of the tie? I'm under the assumption that narrower lapels demand narrower ties, though I could be wrong.
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In regards to the tie. When i go out I even wear mine thinner. I prefer a 7 with a square cut at the end.
thanks,
young chap
We don't all wear one shoe size -- why should one tie width be the norm? Obviously ex-football types will look ridiculous in 8cm ties. For me -- slender, medium height -- the best ties by far are the seven-folds from Rubinacci in Naples, which have always been 8cm. They are far from mainstream, being unlined, so you have a thin knot or you make a few extra loops. But they are supple and expressive in a way no others are. Generally unavailable in the U.S., so more exclusive too.
Brooks Brothers stocked a "Collegiate" tie line (classic stripe patterns in standard collegiate colors) that was a thinner tie. I caught the end of this line and got an orange with blue stripes on sale as they were phasing it out, but I'd like to see this come back.
J Crew is showing some REALLY thin, collegiate style ties this year.
Robert Talbott's seven-folds (and, I believe, Best of Class) are narrower for fall '08 and slightly narrower still for spring '09.I believe that the Talbott rep told me that the spring width is 3.25 -- i.e., 8 c.m. Nordstrom's men's department has a lot of noticeably narrower ties. Boss is especially noticeable.
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