Acouple of weeks ago I needed a tie to go with the cloth my wife bought me as a gift. I spent hours searching over the Internet looking for a good tie, and I ended up in misery. Most of the online clothing eCommerce websites are really badly designed, it took me a little while to get my head around just for the basic stuff; furthermore, most of the sites use small & unprofessional imagery for their products, which in my opinion is a complete failure in terms of usability and product marketing, and most importantly, it devalues the product and its reliability. I pondered the question of why there are so many badly designed online shopping websites out there, I can not come up with a conclusion yet, however I wish in most cases the client was inexorable, and there was nothing the designer can do to make it better. As the result of this unpleasant experience, I decided to create a well crafted issue on ties to ease my pain. Now let us get into the real topic.
A necktie (or tie) is a long piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck or shoulders, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat. Variants include the ascot tie, bow tie, bolo tie, and the clip-on tie. The modern necktie, ascot, and bow tie are descended from the cravat. Neck ties are generally unsized, but may be available in a longer size. Men and boys wear neckties as part of regular office attire or formal wear. Neckties can also be worn as part of a uniform (e.g. military, school and waitstaff), whereas some choose to wear them as everyday clothing attire. Neckties are traditionally worn with the top shirt button fastened, and the tie knot resting comfortably between the collar points. However, it has become common in recent times for neckties to be worn as a casual item, tied loosely around the neck, nearly always with one or several buttons unfastened.
The tie traces back to the time of Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) when Croatian mercenaries from the Croatian Military Frontier in French service, wearing their traditional small, knotted neckerchiefs, aroused the interest of the Parisians. Due to the slight difference between the Croatian word for Croats, Hrvati, and the French word, Croates, the garment gained the name "cravat". The new article of clothing started a fashion craze in Europe where both men and women wore pieces of fabric around their necks. In the late 17th century, the men wore lace cravats that took a large amount of time and effort to arrange. These cravats were often tied in place by cravat strings, arranged neatly and tied in a bow.
– from Wiki, Crane Brothers and Vetted