How to Tie a Real Bow Tie

Wearing a suit and a tie is very common attire in our society. There have probably been at least a few occasions where you had to wear a suit with a tie. There are a several different ways to tie a regular tie and you have probably mastered this skill with relative ease after practicing a few times. However, one mystery that continues to elude even the most assiduously among us is how to tie a real bow tie.

Although you can go out and get a clip-on bow tie, it is just not the same as tying a real bow tie. Clip-ones look too perfect. There’s something brilliantly rakish about the slightly asymmetric, curiously crumpled look of a real bow tie. And best of all, when the night is through, there's nothing classier, nothing more perfectly Sinatra-like than sipping a cool scotch on the rocks with an untied bow tie slung around your collar. With a clip-on, the best you can hope for is Kent Dorfman and warm beer dregs.

Keep in mind that unlike a regular tie, tying a bow tie takes lots of practice.  Be patient, follow these instructions, and you'll be looking groovy in no time.

Step 1:

Mix yourself a strong drink. You're going to need it

Step 2:

Hang the bow tie around your neck, with the right side about an inch lower. These instructions assume that you're right-handed. If you're left-handed, just switch everything around.

Step 3:

Bring the longer end across and over the shorter end, tuck it up through the hole, pull it snug around your neck, then toss the left side up onto your left shoulder (the underside of the tie should be showing).

Step 4:

With your right hand, grasp the flap on the right where it narrows near the end (index finger on the front, thumb behind). That point will be the middle of the tie. You can imagine the width of the tie will be the length of fabric below your fingers plus an equal length above (pretty much to the fattest point on the fabric above your fingers).

Step 5:

Holding the tie pointing straight down, turn it counterclockwise to horizontal and press it up against your neck with your thumbnail right against the first knot you made. Remove your thumb from underneath, and hold that flap there with your index finger pressing against the middle of the tie onto the knot underneath. You should have a loose end sticking out to the right and a looped end to the left.

Step 6:

Grab the flap on your shoulder with your left hand and drape it over the first flap so it's pointing straight down. Hold everything in place with your right index finger. Now pinch the two flaps together in front between your right thumb and middle finger, with the vertical flap sticking down in between.

Step 7:

Grasp the vertical flap with your left thumb and index finger, at the thickest point above the narrowing. Using your index: finger as a pointer, poke that flap up behind the pinched flaps, and horizontally through the hole there from left to right.

Step 8:

Holding both looped ends, pull left and right to tighten the tie, and "primp" it so that both sides are even and the knot in front is clean and tight.

Now grab your dame and hit the town, mister!

Comments (0)