Welcome back to our series on How to tie ties! Today, I'm going to show you how to tie the
Half Windsor Knot.
First of all, the term Half Windsor is kind of off because it doesn't have anything to
do with the regular Windsor knot. In terms of size, it's about halfway between the Four
in Hand knot and the Full Windsor knot but about 75% size of a full Windsor knot so it's
not even half the size of the Windsor knot. As you can see, I'm wearing the Half Windsor
knot here right now with a green linen wool blend tie from Fort Belvedere which is on
the thinner side. It is a symmetrical knot and I included a dimple. It's also slightly
smaller than the Full Windsor knot with the same tie. Okay, here's how you tie it.
To start, you have the slim end in your right hand and the wide end in your left hand. The
slim end should be about a hand and a half above your waistband, the wide end goes to
the right, over the slim end and back to the side it was originally at. Now you take this
end, bring the tie up and go through this hole and you go to the opposite side so you
have it back onto your right. Then bring it back over to the left and front, pull it down
and then up, you can see the knot is forming. Now the wide end goes through the knot and
if you want a dimple, now's the time to pinch. See, knot's forming, so if you like it pull
at the slim end, pull it up and make sure it's the way you like it and pull down here
underneath the knot and pinch here, form the knot you like and then pull it up. Voila!
the Half Windsor knot.
At the size of this tie knot, you obviously do not want to wear it with a tab collar or
any collar bars and pins. I would recommend you wear a cutaway collar, spread collar,
maybe medium spread only if you have a thin tie. If you have a thick tie, the half Windsor
can be rather daring, it's not going to be as big as the full Windsor knot with a thick
tie but here's what it looks like. Voila! the Half Windsor knot with a thick tie. As
you can see. this is a really thick silk jacquard tie from Fort Belvedere and the knot is almost
bigger than a full Windsor with a thinner tie. So if you have a thicker tie and you
like the look of the Windsor knot, go down the Half Windsor to just balance the size
of the knot with the thickness of the tie. It seems like the half Windsor knot is often
favored by shorter men desperately trying to create a big knot so the tie ends up shorter.
Now this is not the best way to do it because shorter men oftentimes have smaller heads
and so a bigger tie knot looks not proportional and it looks awkward. If you're short what
you should do is get a short tie so you can tie a smaller knot that suits you, your height
and suits your body and simply looks much better on you. If you want a shorter tie,
please check out our selection at Fort Belvedere where we offer every tie in short, regular,
and long so you always look your best no matter your height.
Thanks and stay tuned for more videos on how to tie tie knots and other things related
to men's clothing.