Black Bow Ties or A Black Necktie - Which Tie Style When Wearing A Tuxedo_ Black Tie
Neckwear Tips
Hi.
I’m Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style.
Today, we’re going to be talking about “Do you have to wear a black bowtie to a black
tie event?”
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Okay, let’s get right to the question.
Question: on black tie, do you have to wear a bow tie?
I believe there is a trend for younger gentlemen to wear a regular silk necktie, normally in
black, as an alternative to the bowtie.
Just look at any Hollywood red carpet event and you will see men in tuxedos wearing regular
neckties instead of bowties.
Is it just a fad or a new and acceptable trend that will regulate the bowtie to the same
fashion heap as spats and ascots?
Well, it’s a good question and something that you look on television and especially
if he’s black, these are red carpet events and you see these gentlemen in black tie and
it does raise the question.
Here you see some of, supposedly, the best dressed men in the world and they’re breaking
or they’re bending rules.
My first thing and what I want to be very clear is that these aren’t actually probably
great role models to be following.
A lot of these gentlemen, they’re actually – well, they’re all actors and they’re
putting to a position and they’ve got stylist who would try to push the envelope and take
it more towards the fashion direction.
I think there are some great examples out there.
Russell Crowe does overall a pretty good job.
George Clooney has kept it very classic.
Adrien Brody is another good example.
So men like that, they’ve done a overall good job of keeping it very classic and simple.
Daniel Craig is another excellent example but what you need to remember is that black
tie, it’s all about rules and it’s one of the things where it’s very simple for
you to get it right simply by following the rules.
One of them is you should wear the black bowtie but there is room left for interpretation
on that this could be changed because it used to be that we wore the pointed – the wing
collar.
Now we use a turn down collar and that’s basically what I have here.
It turns, a collar that turns down, the wing has little points that go up.
Whenever you wore the wing collar, you had either wear an ascot or you had to wear a
bowtie with it.
The necktie just didn’t work.
Now that almost all men are wearing the turn down collar, it gives you the option of actually
wearing a black necktie or the bowtie and I know there’s some traditionalists out
there who would totally disagree with me on this but I think that the fact if you go with
that type of a collar, it leaves it open and that collar has been accepted by – you see
men meeting the queen over in England and they’re wearing that type of collar with
black tie.
Because of that, it has opened the door and I believe in black tie.
You’re allowed one piece of flare, if that’s a good word for it but you’re allowed to
kind of bend and break one rule.
Now this is for the men who really understand style and I know some of you guys out there
are watching this.
You actually do go to a number of black tie events and you want to change things up a
bit so you can introduce one, I would say, one change up to your outfit that kind of
breaks or bends the rules.
I personally like it when a man wear something like a red pocket square or he’s got a cummerbund
or waistcoat that’s of a contrast color, perhaps red or something a little bit more
muted.
But some men decide, “Hey, I’m going to change this up.”
I think a great example and one that’s a bit more subtle than actually changing up
the whole necktie is to actually go the very, very subtle pattern in a black bowtie and
you can find bowties out there that have a little bit of texture in them or even a little
bit of a hidden pattern.
Those, I think, do a better job but if you want to go with a black necktie, just realize
that you’ve got to have the right type of collar.
It needs to be a white shirt, of course, and that is your one rule that you’re breaking
so you need to make sure that you have waist covering.
A lot of guys mess it up on the red carpet.
They never have a waist covering so you either need to have a cummerbund or a waistcoat and
keep everything else simple and classy.
Your tuxedo should have peak or it should be a shawl lapel.
There’s a lot more.
I’m going to link to it down below.
In fact, I’m going to link you over to the black tie guide.
Peter Marshall has written and researched about this, but again, I think you can bend
and break one rule if you understand and have a good understanding of the foundations of
Men’s style so that’s my answer.
Take care.
I’ll see you in the next video.
This has been Antonio Centeno with Real Men Real Style.
Take care.
Bye.