Watch This Before Buying a Tie

Today, we're going to be talking about everything you need to know about handmade ties. Hi, I'm Leah from Rampage & Co and I'm joined by fashion consultant, Chris Modo. So, Chris, where do we start? I think if you're looking at ties and the quality of construction, the main thing to look at is whether it's handmade or machine made. I prefer handmade ties. The best thing about them, I think, is they're more three-dimensional. They are literally stitched by hand, so you get small, irregular stitches. What it gives you, and I think the key for me, is on the blade, you get a lovely rounded edge. It's a lot fuller, it creates a nicer knot. I think if you look at machine-made ties, and not all machine ties are the same quality, some are better than others, but typically what you're looking at is quite a flat, two-dimensional tie. Think about your old-school polyester tie. It was that type of quality, whereas a handmade tie is much richer. It's an obvious one, but how important is the material of a tie? It's the most important aspect of a tie, the quality of the fabric. And essentially, the purpose of a tie is decorative. So the quality of the silk or the cashmere on the wool has to be perfect, it has to be exactly what you want, you have to like look at it. It has a practical purpose as well. A good quality silk or wool will retain its shape, it will knot well, and in between wears it will cover. So there is absolutely no getting away from good quality materials. No matter how well handmade a tie is, it can't compensate. And what would your favourite material be? I like woven silks. I like very subtle patterns, I like discreet colours, and I think I like the slight sheen of a woven silk. They're quite formal, so they don't always work well with things like blazers and sports jackets, but for suits I like woven silk. One can purchase a three-, five- or seven-fold tie. Could you elaborate on this and the differences between them, Chris? Okay, that's a very expansive question. There's a lot of misinformation about this type of quality of construction. Your standard English tie, whether you buy it online or in Germany, will be a three-fold construction, where it has an interlining and a tipping, and it can be handmade, it can be machine-made. The alternative way of making a tie is by using, say, a five- or seven-fold construction. What you're doing with this is you're taking out some of the interlining and the canvassing and replacing it with folds of silk. So you can end up with quite a thicker, heavier tie. So I actually really love this construction on very fine cashmeres, very fine silks, because it gives the overall tie more of a scarf-like feel to it. It complements southern Italian tailoring, very unstructured, very loose. It has a lot of movement to it, but that's not to say it's better than three-fold. I think for classic English silks, like grenadines, or for rep silks, or for woven silks and mackersfields, a good three-fold construction has its place, and it suits English tailoring. So you mentioned the interlining of the tie. Do you want to elaborate on that a little bit more? Yeah, of course. On a typical three-fold hand-made construction, the interlining is the heart and the body of the tie. It's not visible to the eye, so if we open up one here, you can see it here. This is a good quality wool interlining, and the tie maker has elected to put a further cotton blend interlining in there as well. Every tie is different. So one of the advantages of a hand-made tie is that the bespoke tie maker or the hand maker will select the best interlining for the fabric. Every fabric requires a different combination. The advantage, of course, of good interlining is that it means the tie has weight and it hangs quite formally and quite straight. It means between wears, it can recover and restore to its natural state. And an advantage I love is on a good quality interlining is that a little dimple you create in the tie knot actually becomes a fabric memory. So every time you tie your tie, you get your knot just how you like it. So, yeah, the interlining where you don't see it is a central part of the tie. If you're enjoying this video, please hit the like button and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We're going to look at textures of the ties. Chris, how does texture affect formality? It affects it a lot, actually. If you look at a formal silk tie, like a Maccasfield fine woven, it has a very tight texture, so it has a slight sheen to it. This is regarded as quite a formal tie, the sort of thing you would wear for a morning dress or for a wedding. Printed silk, like this beautiful Madder tie here, is sort of somewhere in the middle. It looks great with a business suit, you can also wear it with a blazer. Very elegant with a light sheen. But when you go to things like Chantung, which is a heavy texture and quite matte, I think those are great ties to wear with less formal occasions, with blazers and sports jackets. Not to say you can't wear it with a suit, but you are kind of giving it a slightly less formal feel to it. And then finally, you have knitted ties. Now, a silk knitted tie also looks great with a blazer or a sports jacket, but they can also look quite elegant and quite formal because it's a plain colour with a business suit as well. So they sort of straddle different formalities. So would you recommend tying a different tie knot with different textures? That's an interesting question because I think what you're alluding to is that thicker ties will give you a larger knot. This one here, the Chantung, is a thick textured tie and even on a simple four-in-hand, you've got a moderately sized knot. If you tie the same knot perhaps in a fine woven, you'll get a smaller knot. So if you want a larger knot or you'd like to tie fancier tie knots, a finer silk will afford you balance. I personally tend to do the same knot across all my silks, whether it's a fine silk or a heavy silk, and incorporate the larger or smaller knot into the outfit. What is the significance of how the tie blade is finished? OK, on a classic English tie, a three-fold construction, you have a separate piece of fabric called the tipping. On the inside here, often it would be with the brand's logo on it or a repeat pattern. But more expensive, and I think a nicer way of finishing it, is to use the fabric of the tie. So it's what they call self-tips. The reason it's more expensive, it's not the construction, but the fabric of a tie is usually quite expensive and this increases the consumption. So if you see a tie like that, you know it's usually a good expensive tie. The opposite of that is to have no tipping at all. This exposes the interlining on a three-fold. Often you see this done on five and seven folds, and you have this beautiful sort of hand stitching on the edge. I think this is lovely, particularly on plain ties, because it gives a little bit of character to it, but I know it's not to everybody's taste. And finally, do you have any recommendations on how to store the ties? Of course. Typically, a lot of people hang their ties, a very popular way of doing it on a tie rack, for example. The disadvantage of doing that is if you're not wearing a tie for a continuous amount of time, you can get a bit of stretching around the neck part. You sometimes notice on a spot tie, like a large spot tie, that the spots around the neck will start to look more oval shapes. That's a combination of wearing and also being hung up. I prefer to roll my ties. So when you're not wearing them, just roll them and just gently ease out any creases. Just gently fold it like that and then store in a shallow drawer. This way, the tie doesn't have any pressure on it and it stays fresh. The products featured in this video are linked in the description below. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.