GLOSSARY

THE SELF-TIPPED TIE: when the tie and its lining are made of the same material, this is called self-tipping.

COLOURS: for many years, coloured ties seemed out of place.
In the 1950’s, finally some pale, delicate colours appeared – like champagne or beige. In the 1980’s, Armani in Italy and Joseph Abboud in the United States, began producing ties in refined neutral tones which evoked the earth’s elements  – brown, grey and green. These colours were easy to match. However in recent times, bright, lively colours have become more fashionable. There are two things to remember when matching the colour of a tie to that of a shirt – the first one is to choose a tie of a colour which contrasts  the colour of the shirt, because the tie must stand out. You should never choose a tie and shirt in two shades of the same colour. The most harmonic contrast can only be obtained by an association of complementary colours like blue and orange, green and red, yellow and purple. When uncertain, a good rule is to put a primary colour together with a secondary colour which contains the first, red and brick red, blue and green, etc. It’s a good idea to remember that three colours give a better impression of harmony. Therefore, the tie should have a predominant colour which contrasts the shirt and in a lesser quantity the same colour as the shirt

EFFECTS: silk, the topmost material for ties, is perfect for giving sophisticated effects. For a refined garment shot silk can be used, giving an opal effect and is achieved by dying the warp and weft threads different shades. The yarns are dyed first and then woven. When looking at the garment from different angles it appears to change in colour. This type of precious silk is no longer produced. At the same level of elegance, today, we can find the plissè (pleated) tie, which had already appeared briefly in the 1950’s. The pleats in the silk, obtained by pressing at a high temperature, give the tie a delightful flimsiness.
Claude Montana, whose tie designers are among the most innovative, proposes crumpled silk, an effect obtained by calendaring, and velveteen, a kind of tufted fabric, in which the cut threads are evenly distributed, giving it a short dense pile.
A growing number of tie makers are recently proposing ties in washed silk, which imitate wool or tweed. To obtain this effect, its sheen is eliminated, washing it in huge washing machines where sand or gravel has been introduced. A particular process then confers the silk with a suave effect which is similar to peach skin. This fabric is called  madder and has become a speciality of  British tie makers.

HAND MADE: there are three ways in which a tie can be made – completely hand-stitched, machine made and hand-finished or entirely machine made. The craftsmen who specialize in the confection of ties by hand, usually work at home and normally confection no more than ten an hour. The houses of fashion who employ these tie makers will be guaranteed the perfect quality of each piece produced. The tailors who propose ties of excellent quality but made in series, prefer the intermediate category –  sewn by machines but hand-finished. The first step is the cutting. A good tie is cut on the bias at 45° . On average three or four ties are cut in a metre of fabric, depending on the motifs. Then the three external segments are assembled and machine sewn. The seams are ironed, one of the operations which must be done by hand. After that, the machine is used to sew the bottom edges of the lining and the tie together. After the outer fabric, inlay and lining of the tie have been joined, the tie will be sewn together at the back. When this procedure is done by a LIBA sewing machine, the tie will be turned inside-out, sewn and turned back again to the outside. Next the keeper and the label will be sewn onto the back.

TOUCH: connoisseurs of this garment love to use the expression – touch. Ties can have forms, colours, patterns and also touch. It’s a feeling which is averted when caressing the material to appreciate its weight and consistence. There are numerous factors which give it a good touch – the quality of the fabric and the cure with which it has been confectioned. A beautiful “touch” is what real experts look for, something which is not only terminology or decoration, but something delightful to touch, caressing and at the same time compact – like a second skin. What creates this pleasure, starting from a simple thread, is the experience of craftsmen and high-level technicians.

THE MATERIAL: choosing a tie every day, also means choosing the most appropriate material. There are some simple rules: for example because the climate cannot be at the same time polar or equatorial, there is no valid reason to wear a wool tie with a linen jacket in summer, or vice-versa. In the first place there must be harmony between different weaves or different sheens. It would be wrong to match a tie in twill or in silk with a rough woollen jacket or one in stiff cotton. An important rule to remember is that it’s better to choose a tie whose texture is similar to that of the shirt or jacket you want to match it to. A suit in twill needs a tie in twill or in another fabric which has narrow ridges. In the same way a linen jacket matches perfectly a tie in shantung, a tweed jacket with a woollen tie.
Finally, the fabric of the tie must be right for the occasion. It’s obvious that a luxurious silk tie is more adapt for evening wear than for a day in the office, while for a twill or cotton tie the opposite is true.

MOTIFS: a swarm of multi-coloured dots, a camel, a fragment of mosaic, stripes, paisley prints, a bouquet of flowers, a polo player, an Aztec design: today the universe represented on ties is immense -  multiplied by different styles, by different qualities of weave, by different shades of colour. The tie lover can choose a tie either classical or ephemeral, serious or cheerful, shy or bold, sensitive or arrogant, sporty or elegant. After the universal triumph of the long tie, around the year 1930, all the poetry of this accessory has been expressed through its motifs. Certainly, some designed ties had been  seen in the past, but the majority remained plain, mostly black or white. Experts take into consideration more how the motifs are accomplished or their disposition on the tie rather than the subject itself. The disposition of the motifs has an influence on the weaving procedure, and sometimes on the printing and the confection of the tie, in fact the disposition of the motifs contributes to its style, just as much as the design itself. The expression “a flowered tie” can mean lots of things from a quiet tie with daisy design repeated regularly, to an exuberate tie with one huge sunflower in the centre.
From small regular designs all over the tie to larger designs, now it is possible to find single motifs, which can be found below a self-coloured knot or halfway between the knot and the first button of the jacket.

THE SEVEN FOLD TIE: charvet and Madelois in Paris, Robert Talbott in California and Ermenegildo Zegna in Milan, are the producers of the most luxurious ties. In fact, they have renewed the tradition, which had disappeared, of the seven fold ties, which were fashionable (and very expensive) in the 1920’s and 30’s. This tie is cut from a single piece of silk and asymmetrically folded seven times onto itself. It is untipped and unlined. The high price of these ties is due to the quantity of silk needed to create them. There is only one inconvenience, since the piece of silk is used to give body to the tie sometimes it can result slightly short. Regarding its “touch” this tie so intense and light, can give sublime pleasure.

THE UNLINED TIE: this is a sartorial, hand stitched tie, light, soft and comfortable. A true piece of refined work.

THE PRINTED SILK TIE: this tie is generally less expensive than a woven silk tie. Due to the fact that it can present an infinite number of designs, it is the most common silk tie. These ties can be found at modest prices but we can also find examples with very refined designs and sophisticated colours. The printed motifs which present a great wealth of motifs and colours are obtained by juxtaposition, each single colour is printed successively onto the raw silk (usually twill which has very fine diagonal ribs) Each colour is applied to about a metre of fabric through a screen. Some parts of the fabric which have been drawn with precision, are permeable, allowing the fabric to receive the colour. Therefore for a motif with five colours, five different screens are necessary, which are positioned successively on the same surface. The more colours there are, the more screens will be needed and the more expensive the finished tie will be. For most ties produced nowadays normally four or five screens are needed. However in the most beautiful printed ties, those of Hermès or Ferragamo, six, eight and up to twelve different colours can be counted. The most expensive ties in the world, those produced by the House of Leonard in Paris, present large figurative designs with as many as twenty-six different colours.

WEAVING: the production of woven silk for ties requires a high level of  technical ability. Once the fabric and the pattern have been decided, the procedure can begin. On a sheet of squared paper, the combination of the warp and weft threads is drawn. This provides the structure of the fabric and allows the pattern to be reproduced in minimal details. The operation is long and meticulous, depending on the variants of the weave and the different shades of colour. Until recent times it had to be done by hand but nowadays it is an operation usually done on the computer. The design is then read by a mechanical device and reported onto cardboard, or it can be scanned and the information transmitted to a perforator, which punches holes in the card for the loom. Nowadays there are electronic looms which use a simple numbered disc instead of the perforated card.
The coloured threads positioned on the loom have to been treated, as through the process of being coloured they have lost some of their original weight and therefore are immersed in a bath of mineral salts to reacquire their original consistency. This procedure contributes to the “touch” or feeling of the tie. The most beautiful have been woven with one continuous silk thread without floss, that is where discontinuous threads are joined together by spinning scraps of silk.

THE WOVEN FABRIC: woven silk is the maximum expression of elegance for ties because it allows the creation of refined motifs and provides an infinite number of  textures. A tie is the only men’s garment that can be made with such sophisticated fabric. Plain weave, the most common, can produce rep weave with vertical ribs, ottoman weave with transversal ribs, and crepe weave, whose granulose surface is achieved by twisting the threads. Twill weave, which has diagonal ribbing,  is the most common for ties. Satin weave is one of the three most important textile weaves. (The other two are plain or twill weave). Satin weave is distinguished by its lustrous or silky appearance. Satin describes the way threads are designed. The satin weave is characterized by four or more weft yarns floating over a warp yarn or vice versa, four warp yarns floating over a single weft yarn. This explains the even sheen. The most beautiful ties can present more than one weave, whose names indicate the effect produced. For example: basket-weave or sand-finish.  The most refined ties can present a combination of weaves. Cachemire in rep and serge,  chequerboard motifs in which serge and rep alternate, stripes or spots in rep of different dimensions. A specialist in this kind of tie is Chavet who proposes, among other things, ties with a background of little rectangles in relief, whose centre is in satin while the rest basket weave. You can find ties made of a fine silk gauze – grenadine - which is similar to a fine knitted fabric.