[Sussex] Tie becomes unbound

[Derek Harding]

Hi,
> > Speaking as a member of the non tie wearing community I wondered how
> > many of the more learned readers here can find the history of why we
> > wear ties and what their purpose was ?
> 
> 
> In 1660, in celebration of its hard-fought victory over the Ottoman
> Empire , a crack regiment from Croatia (then part of the
> Austro-Hungarian Empire), visited Paris. There, the soldiers were
> presented as glorious heroes to Louis XIV, a monarch well known for
> his eye toward personal adornment. It so happened that the officers of
> this regiment were wearing brightly colored handkerchiefs fashioned of
> silk around their necks. These neck cloths, which probably descended
> from the Roman fascalia worn by orators to warm the vocal chords,
> struck the fancy of the king, and he soon made them an insignia of
> royalty as he created a regiment of Royal Cravattes. The word
> "cravat," incidentally, is derived from the word "Croat."
> 
> I have probably worn a tie four times in the last 3 years. Once for a
> job interview. Once for a promotion interview. Once for being Best Man
> at a friend's wedding. Once at my daughter's cristening.

Continuing the above history:
The neck-adornments were like fine scarves and by the 1700(ish) they were wound round the throat a couple of times before being tucked down in front of the adam's apple. They were often fastened by a fancy broach (to become tie-pins and tie-tacks). Clergy wore white ones and as the cravat lost favour, they became either the dog-collar or the "tabbed" collar (as worn traditionally by "chapel" clergy). The dog-collar itself changed from being a complete band with a false front attached to being an ordinary but collarless shirt with a "tunnel" around the nechband where a white strip (now of soft plastic) can be inserted to show at the front of the shirt.
The cravat, meanwhile, being fastened now by a broach, no longer needed to be wound round the throat so became thinner and shorter. Fashion decreed that the ends should be visible and so they were widened. Less wealthy people could not afford a posh pin to hold it in place and the increasing thin-ness around the neck meant tying in a bow at the front. That also lost way to fashion, becoming the tie we now know and love/hate to wear.
Like mark, I avoid ties like the plague and always have, but I have little choice about the dog-collar when on church business!

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Best wishes,
Derek