Necktie - Types of Knots

Types of Knots

There are four main knots used to knot neckties. In rising order of difficulty, they are:

• the four-in-hand knot. The four-in-hand knot may be the most common.
• the Pratt knot (the Shelby knot)
• the half-Windsor knot
• the Windsor knot (also erroneously called the "double-Windsor" or, redundantly, "full Windsor"). The Windsor knot is the thickest knot of the four, since its tying has the most steps.

The Windsor knot is named after the Duke of Windsor, although he did not invent it. The Duke did favour a voluminous knot; however, he achieved this by having neckties specially made of thicker cloths.

In the late 1990s, two researchers, Thomas Fink and Yong Mao of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, used mathematical modeling to discover that eighty-five knots are possible with a conventional tie (limiting the number "moves" used to tie the knot to nine; longer sequences of moves result in too large a knot or leave the hanging ends of the tie too short). The models were published in academic journals, while the results and the 85 knots were published in layman's terms in a book entitled The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie. Of the 85 knots, Fink and Mao selected thirteen knots as "aesthetic" knots, using the qualities of symmetry and balance. Based on these mathematical principles, the researchers came up with not only the four necktie knots in common use, but nine more, some of which had seen limited use, and some that are believed to have been codified for the first time.

Other types of knots include:

• the small knot (also "oriental knot", "Kent knot"): the smallest possible necktie knot. It forms an equilateral triangle, like the half-Windsor, but much more compact (Fink–Mao notation: Lo Ri Co T, Knot 1). It is also the smallest knot to begin inside-out.
• the Nicky knot: an alternative version of the Pratt knot, but better-balanced and self-releasing (Lo Ci Ro Li Co T, Knot 4). Supposedly named for Nikita Krushchev, it tends to be equally referred to as the Pratt knot in men's style literature. This is the version of the Pratt knot favored by Fink and Mao.
• the Atlantic knot: a reversed Pratt knot, highlighting the structure of the knot normally hidden on the back. In order for the wide blade to remain in front and rightside-out, the knot must begin rightside-out, and the thin end must be wrapped around the wide end. (Ri Co Ri Lo Ci T; not catalogued by Fink and Mao, but would be numbered 5r according to their classification.)
• the Prince Albert knot (also "double knot", "cross Victoria knot"): A variant of the four-in-hand with an extra pass of the wide blade around the front, before passing the wide blade through both of the resultant loops (Li Ro Li Ro Li Co T T, Knot 6₂). A version knotted through only the outermost loop is known as the Victoria knot (Li Ro Li Ro Li Co T, Knot 6).
• the Christensen knot (also "cross knot"): An elongated, symmetrical knot, whose main feature is the cruciform structure made by knotting the necktie through the double loop made in the front (Li Ro Ci Lo Ri Lo Ri Co T T, Knot 25₂). While it can be made with modern neckties, it is most effective with thinner ties of consistent width, which fell out of common use after the 19th century.
• the Ediety knot (also "Merovingian knot"): a doubled Atlantic knot, best known as the tie knot worn by the character "the Merovingian" in the film The Matrix Reloaded. This tie can be knotted with the thin end over the wide end, as with the Atlantic knot, or with the wide end over the thin end to mimic the look seen in the film, with the narrow blade in front. (Ri Co Ri Lo Ci Ri Co Ri Lo Ci T; not catalogued by Fink and Mao, as its ten moves exceed their parameters.)