Question:
I'm seeing a lot of fat tie knots lately. How do I get that look?
Answer:
That smart, almost casual, more loosely wrapped European look is generally achieved with either a thicker, heavier weight tie to begin with, or by tying a full knot, sometimes a combination of the two. You can get extra girth out of any tie with a Windsor knot which originated shortly after World War I.
Although the Duke of Windsor claimed he never tied his tie this way and rejected the credit--this large, handsome knot and its accompanying namesake endures to this day.
The Windsor Knot is a thick, wide triangular knot that projects confidence. While just about everyone can use this knot, it looks especially appealing on men with longer necks as its wide form shortens the perceived height of the neck. This look demands to be worn with a spread collar shirt.
There are two methods of tying a Windsor knot. The full bodied Full-Windsor knot is the most aggressive of these larger scale knots. The Half-Windsor is the less bulky version. Which Windsor knot to use depends on a few factors which include the thickness of the tie, the width of your collar, and scale of your body. I generally find the Full-Windsor to be the more appealing of the 2 knots, since it has better balance than the Half-Windsor.
If you are not sure how to tie a windsor knot or for that matter just want some help with tying a good knot, you might check out
www.tie-a-tie.net. It's a nice site with actual video demonstations of how to tie various tie knots.
