The Best Ways to Tie a Necktie

Until recently I only knew one way to tie a necktie (the half-Windsor), because that's the only way my dad knows and that's what he taught me. I've never been very good at tying it but never though much about it, until I saw a friend who had tied his tie very nicely for his dissertation defense (it was a nicely-done Windsor).

So I figured I'd check out how to do it. It turns out some physicists figured out mathematically that there are exactly 85 ways to tie a tie, 13 of them aesthetically pleasing.

I tried all 13. It's worth learning the notation in the link if you want to try any of these knots. Just look at how they notate a knot that you already know and it will make sense immediately. If you don't know the name, you probably know the half-Windsor. There are also good pictorial instructions for all 13 knots at totieatie.com.

The four standard knots are the Four-in-hand, the Pratt, the half-Windsor, and the Windsor, and out of those the only one I like is the Windsor. I discovered there is a knot that looks very much like the half-Windsor that is much easier to get right: the St. Andrew. In my opinion, the St. Andrew is a much better choice than any of the four traditional knots if you only learn one knot. It's incredibly hard to make it look bad no matter how poorly or quickly you tie it.

My favorite symmetric knots (small to large):

• the Nicky for a simple small knot
• St. Andrew for a fuller knot like a half-Windsor
• Windsor for a big triangle knot
• Hanover for a really big triangle knot

My favorite "weird" knots (small to large):

• Victoria (small tube)
• Cavendish (asymmetrical knot)

After you have some practice and think you know what you're doing, go talk to a man at a good men's clothing store who takes his job seriously. You'll probably find out, like I did, that you don't know that much after all. He can show you how to really do it right, what to look for in a very good tie, and tricks that can't be easily described in print. It's going to cost you at least $40 for a good tie. If he says something along the lines of "a tie's a tie," or isn't an expert at tying his own tie, go somewhere else.

My annotated version of all 13 ties from the Wikipedia list: