How wide is your necktie?

[Kouros]

The width of your tie should match the lapels of your suit.

 

[The Knize]

The width of your tie should match the lapels of your suit.

Yep, that has sure been the rule of thumb. Helps clothing manufacturers sell some ties, and some suits, too. Hard to disagree with it, too.

 

[skklog]

Yep, that has sure been the rule of thumb. Helps clothing manufacturers sell some ties, and some suits, too. Had to disagree with it, too.

That may be the rule of thumb, but I have two thumbs.

 

[marv0723]

No dis, but there has been something of an air of unreality in this thread. I bet most of us wore that width of tie that the stores where sellilng when we bought the particular tie. And over my life time ties widths have varied depending upon the particular year over a range of say 2.75" to 4.0." But stores were much in lock step with perhaps Brooks Brothers changing less and Ben Silver pretty much sticking with 3.25" no matter what. (Earlier I said my ties were 3.5". I would say more of my ties are 3.25".)

The not so subtle thing being that the width of the tie and the width of a suit lap should be in balance, and if those things are changed around from time to time, a lot more clothing is going to be sold. I like askandy.com a lot and perhaps their are folks over there that buy their suits and ties to match things about their own build, but I bet most are in the position most of us are. We buy what the stores are currently selling.

However, for the first time I have very seen it in main stream stores, as opposed to say a New Wave hipster store, more than one width of tie is starting to be offered. Land's End, for instance, is offering ties in 2.75" and 3.5," with shirts with smaller "varsity" collars to go with them. One review I read referred to these as "smaller, more modern collars." So I have no question that narrower ties are coming back. Also some of the widths of suit lapels I have seen on the racks are very narrow, which just confirms things for me. Where a 3.75" wide tie with one of those and you are going to look like you are wearing drapes, I do not care have tall, short, fat, or skinny you might be.

I actually think 3.5" wide in a tie is going to look a little too wide and out of style within a couple of years and 3.25" would be more the standard width in Fall 2009. So even on the narrow ties it is a drop in width of 0.50 inch, which is not so, so extreme.

Also, I think that men tend to wear their ties a little narrower than what is most common, if they are going to deviate from whatever the most current common width is. That is, I think at any given time lots of guys might go narrower, but it is an unusual guy that that will be sporting that 3.75" tie is the standard goes to 2.75"

You had me at "Hello....". I was with you through most of your post. I think you were totally right about everything being in balance. That's probably one of the things most struggled with. However, attempting to remain "trendy" will drive you insane. You should wear what suits you, balance in mind. Create your own style. If you're measuring your tie with a micrometer, you need another razor. Or, switch to straights. Wear a bow tie and forget about it. You'll always be considered eccentric, but the ladies like them and they make people smile.

 

[The Knize]

You had me at "Hello....". I was with you through most of your post. I think you were totally right about everything being in balance. That's probably one of the things most struggled with. However, attempting to remain "trendy" will drive you insane. You should wear what suits you, balance in mind. Create your own style. If you're measuring your tie with a micrometer, you need another razor. Or, switch to straights. Wear a bow tie and forget about it. You'll always be considered eccentric, but the ladies like them and they make people smile.

Ah, nice of you to say, My Man!

I'm too fat to wear a bow tie!

I completely agree that trying to say trendy will drive one insane. As to suits and ties I mostly buy very conservative and that way at least I do not go too out of style, even if I am never very close to trendy.

 

[skklog]

I think when it come's to suits, the styles don't change much over time, maybe just the colors.

For me I like to ware only Double breasted suits, and around here that's not in style so there hard to find ( Although DB never actually goes completely out)