The Windsor

I came across Tim Ferris' blog entry for August 15 titled How to Tie the Perfect Tie… Every Time by accident. Ferris recounts a story of being taught how to tie a tie by someone he nicknames the “Egyptian magician.” He (Ferris) called it “The Egyptian magician knot” in honor of this tutor. It turned out to be the Windsor knot.

He then offers for our benefit (and the ladies' as well—naturally—who will in turn teach it to to any man occupying the following roles: “boyfriends, father, son, or stranger” who should then “love” the ladies “forever,” as a result, according to Ferris) the following video.

How nice, Tim.

However, the Windsor knot is knot (sorry) “little-known.” The fact that it's not better-known is a sad reflection of our times: in which boys grow up never needing to tie a tie and thus not knowing how to do so. Even, surprisingly, ones such as Ferris who attended private schools where such knowledge was de rigeur not too long ago and where the need to invent names for as famous a knot as the Windsor (Egyptian magician knot indeed!) was unknown.

In addition, people, including all those ladies he writes of seeking love from their men and boys, have to understand that the Windsor is not necessarily appropriate for every occasion, every face, every shirt and every collar type—it does indeed go particularly well with a spread collar, certainly not recommended for men with fat faces and short necks as I have, alas. In fact, an argument may be made that the Four-in-hand may actually be a better fit as an “all-rounder” knot than the Windsor which tends to sit flatly on the shirt's surface, like a dead fish.

To wit this picture from Ferris:

This is blah, boring. There's no interest here, it's wide, flat, and limp, not the most flattering of adjectives any modern gentleman would want to be associated with.

Ironically, the Windsor knot was named for the Duke of Windsor, the erstwhile King Edward VIII, but he never wore it. According to Wikipedia, His Grace simply preferred a “wide knot” and claimed he did not invent the knot. Instead, his extra-thick and extra-wide ties resulted in an extra-large knot when tied with the basic Four-in-hand knot. If the man solely responsible for classic men's dress, as some have claimed—a claim with which I completely agree—defers to the four-in-hand, who amongst us fashion underlings would dare cast the first stone in the opposite direction?

No sir, not me. For an alternative, how about this:

It's from another Tim, this one composing an Ode to the Tie Dimple:

And now we come to the subject of tie knots and the tie dimple. Perhaps it's just what my dad taught me, but I've always worn the traditional four-in-hand knot. To me the Windsor is too bulky and stodgy. The four-in-hand knot is "just right" for me.

Furthermore, unless the composition of the tie prohibits its formation, I always form a dimple when I knot my ties. In my opinion, no tie knot is complete; no businesswear is "finished" unless a knot is dimpled.

He includes links to Tieguide.com and Neckties.com.

Thomas Pink wrote a great book some time back, The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie and has a veritable encyclopedia of tie knots available online. So people, please, there are many ways to tie a tie. The Windsor, while a good tie knot, is definitely not the perfect knot. It all depends on the man, the shirt, and the collar.