Where does the necktie originate and what was its purpose

A.� Thank you for your sartorial query, Tads. Short answer is: Croatia, fashion item.< xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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Q.� And the long answer

A.� Well, despite man's current fixation with the tie as an item of polite wear, they are only about 100 years old. Their direct origins are a little earlier. In the mid-1600s, a regiment from Croatia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and an ally of France in the Thirty Years' War, visited Paris. There, the soldiers were presented to Louis XIV, a monarch well known as a dandy. The officers of this regiment were wearing brightly coloured silk handkerchiefs around their necks.

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Q.� Why

A.� They were an affectation — probably a throwback to the Roman scarves worn by orators to warm the vocal cords. Any way, they struck a chord with the King, and he soon made them an insignia of royalty as he created a regiment of Royal Cravattes. The name derived, you guessed it, from the word Croat.

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Q.� And the fashion spread

A.� Yes. The new style crossed the English Channel. Soon, no gentleman would have considered himself well-dressed without sporting something around his neck — and the fancier, the better.

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Q.� What could you do to a plain old cravat

A.� Plenty. By the mid-18th Century, cravats were worn so high that a man could not move his head without turning his whole body. Cravats were made with tassels of tartan, lace and with bows of ribbon.

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Q.� Lace Not, ahem, very manly then

A.� Au contraire. They became the very symbol of manhood. One French costumier, who instructed men in the fine art of tying a cravat, noted: 'The grossest insult that can be offered to a man comme il faut is to seize him by the cravat; in this place blood only can wash out the stain upon the honour of either party.'

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Q.� And today's tie

A.� It developed in late Victorian times and has gone through various styles and widths — culminating in the ludicrous kipper tie of the late 1960s and 1970s�that was up to�five inches wide, followed by the post-punk pencil-thin version.

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Q.� Why do a lot of doctors wear bow ties

A.� It goes back to the days when doctors would operate without gowns. A conventional tie may well have dangled in the patient's entrails. The same goes for bow-tied press photographers — when ties would have got soaked in darkroom chemicals.

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Q.� Yuck. Change the subject. Current styles

A.� Bright. Silk. The television journalist Jon Snow has been a pioneer of the ultra-bright neckwear. His psychedelic ties made an interesting contrast with the staid furniture of the Channel 4 studio.

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Q.� Width

A.� Experts say the proper width of a tie, and one that will never be out of style, is 3.25 inches — a quarter of an inch either way is acceptable. Standard neckties come in lengths anywhere from 52 inches to 58 inches long.

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Q.� Knots

A.� The aim is a small, elegant knot. My fashion adviser tells me: 'The relationship of a tie's knot to the shirt collar is an important consideration. If the relationship is proper, the knot will never be so large that it spreads the collar or forces it open, nor will it be so small that it will become lost in the collar.'

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Q.� Something to do with King Edward VIII

A.� Yes — or the Duke of Windsor as he became after abdicating in 1936. The Windsor knot is one of the best-known styles and was said to have been invented by HRH, although he later denied that. There's also the half-Windsor, and four-in-hand. Oscar Wilde said: 'A well-tied tie is the first serious step in life.'

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Q.� And advice on how to tie it

A.� Ask a tailor. Or your valet.

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Q.� What about a bow tie

A.� Practise — for about�ten years.

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To ask more questions about History & Myths, click here.

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By Steve Cunningham

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