My Neck Tie Presentation

The other day, I was the featured speaker at the annual Bow Tie Club dinner at my job. I got to give a presentation on neck ties, as well as the crazy knots I usually wear. The event was not filmed, but I received a ton of positive feedback from those who attended, so I decided to share it. Since my site is text based, you won’t get the same feeling as if you were here, but hopefully you’ll enjoy it, too. The pictures are the slides from my presentation. Enjoy.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for coming tonight.

Let’s start with the elephant in the room. Yes, I do know how to tie a bow tie.

My neck tie journey started when I was around 10 years old. My biological parents were strict Roman Catholics. Latin mass and everything. Women had to wear veils. Men had to wear ties. Being the rebellious bad boy you see today, I decided to wear my father’s hideous wide ties from the 70s.

If I was going to wear a tie, I was going to be ridiculous. Have you ever noticed how popular Thanksgiving colors were in the 70s?

Fast forward a few years, and it was time for me to get a grown up job. My fake dad bought me this tie for job interviews.

(show blue tie)

I only knew how to tie a Windsor, and that was fine. Another decade goes by, and the YouTube Algorithm recommended a tutorial on a unique knot called the Eldridge. I was blown away. I had no idea that was even a thing. It turns out, there are hundreds of unique knots. From that point on, I only wore those knots.

That wasn’t enough. What good is an eye catching knot, if you wear the same tie every day? So I started buying more ties. It quickly became an addiction.

Here are my favorite knots.

(show the Eldridge, Virginia, Merovingian, Ank, Matrix knots)

Around 7 or 8 years ago, I found out about these ties, called Stirling-Scotts.

They are wider than normal ties, but the most important thing is that they are double sided. This enables you to wear them in quite creative ways.

(show various ways to tie a Stirling Scott)

The only problem was the cost. On average, they ranged from $200 to $500 each. They are all limited edition. He makes between 5 and 10 of each tie, and that was it. If he was sold out, you were out of luck.

I have 20 of them. As you can imagine, it was getting quite expensive. So I took a look at my bank account, took a deep breath, and promised myself I would stop.

After I bought this.

(show the double black label tie)

… for $2500. (face palm)

Now, this brings up a few questions. What is wrong with me? Why don’t I like having money? Why could this tie possibly be worth that much money? Will my landlord let me skip rent for a month because I look pretty?

The fabric in this tie was woven on the loom in the castle of Versailles in the 17^th century. Therefore, it’s what is known as “extinct silk”. There can never be another tie like this. The guy who made it said it’s the 7^th most exclusive tie in the world. And it’s mine. In fact, when it was time to take photos of the tie to sell it, the creator used Johnny Depp as the model.

I have that tie. Not a tie like that; THAT tie. Right here.

But then I had to stop. I had to. I absolutely had to stop.

I figured, I’m a smart person. Surely I can figure out how to make my own ties. YouTube started this, so there’s probably a tutorial on how to make double sided ties.

Hmm. That’s weird. Well I could rip one of these apart and reverse engineer it, but then I’ve wasted a few hundred dollars. So I thought about it.

I finally figured it out. The trick is that everything is sewn inside out. But there are multiple steps, so you have to think backwards. The first step is to pick your two fabrics. Face them together so the “backs” are facing out. After trial and error, I realized you need to add a layer of thicker fabric to the inside. Since we are working backwards, we add that to the outside. Next we sew them together. You don’t need to sew the entire length. Just the part from where the tail meets the blade down.

Now we can flip it right side in. This part confused me for a bit. I couldn’t figure out why the Sterling Scotts all had a tip on the tail. It turns out, that’s needed for the final step. But we have to sew it on now, keeping in mind that it has to be inside out.

Next, we have to decide which side will be the “front” side and which will be the “reverse” side. Once that’s established, fold it like a really really really long taco, with the “front” side INSIDE the taco. Sew along that edge, ending a little past the first stitching.

We flip it right side in again. It’s starting to look like a tie. We have one step left, which is to sew the tip closed. That’s it. This took multiple variations to get right. I’ve found that while ironing is helpful, it’s best to have someone run it through a flattener first.

(Q&A)

Thank you for inviting me to speak, and have a great night.

(end)

If you’re interested in the knots themselves, here are some links to tutorials.

Eldridge Knot

Merovingian (Ediety) Knot

Matrix Knot

Virginia Knot

Sterling Scott knots