So...
Whenever there is a thunderstorm that's in the area,
or that's about to hit; that's impacting, or has just left.
What does everyone do?
You watch men's neckwear tutorials on YouTube,
isn't that what everyone does?
Well, that's what I'm going to do be... that's what I'm going to be doing today.
This is a video that I've wanted to do for quite some time.
It's a video that I've wanted to do for a while.
But I don't know why it never came to be.
I wear a tie every single day.
I thought to myself,
maybe it's time to just kind of demonstrate a necktie tutorial.
In this video I'm going to show you two different knots.
The four-in-hand knot and the half windsor knot.
Now when it comes down to clothing online,
especially menswear but really goes for everything,
There has to be a very clear and established difference
between what is considered fashion and what is style.
There is a difference between the two things
and if you start looking through videos of menswear tips and tricks and whatnot,
you're going to start finding a whole slew of...
...differing opinions,
clashing views, you know, "never wear that suit"...
"never go with that necktie", "never go with that knot",
"never wear a shirt with this type of collar with this type of jacket and this type of tie"...
and then you're going to find a video that's totally 180 on it
and will tell you the exact opposite thing.
When it comes down to...
...wearing clothing,
wear would your content with.
You know, find your own style and own it and that's what I recommend doing.
Then trust me 9 times out of 10,
any average person really isn't going to care how you look.
There are going to be exceptions that people who say that not a single person cares about what you look like,
that is a lie. There's exceptions but ignore those people anyway.
For instance,
Often on a daily basis I wear one of the biggest fashion faux-pas that many of these people would say,
which is wearing a short sleeve dress shirt with a necktie.
I wear one pretty much every single day here in Florida
because the climate is very hot and humid,
and it's a way I can still...
...wear a necktie and be comfortable at the same time.
Do I have people that heckle me on the street,
and, you know, beat me up just because I'm wearing a short sleeve shirt with a necktie?
No, no one cares at all.
That should say something in and of itself.
But anyway, I'm going to show you two necktie knots as I said,
the four-in-hand and the half windsor knot.
First we're gonna start with the four-in-hand knot,
which is a beginner tie knot.
I should also mention,
as I said, anyone could wear a necktie for any reason.
You find your own style, be happy with it, and own it.
With that said the four-in-hand necktie is...
...a pretty standard traditional knot.
It's very common. Very common in the world of business,
so you'll see that very common on television as well.
And it works with a wide variety of neckties.
Now let's begin. It's an easy... It's an easy tie.
This is what I would recommend you start out with,
and let's begin. First if you're wearing a suit, got to remove the jacket.
See, it kind of is the short sleeve one.
We'll hang it up here like that.
First thing to do when you're tying a tie make sure that your shirt is all buttoned up—works best at least.
Got the top button buttoned.
Get the collar.
Flip it up. So it's straight up like that.
Next to get your necktie. I decided I'm going with the...
...gray suit. I picked two different ties out.
We're gonna go with a gray tie. Why not?
We're just gonna keep it kind of conservative. We're gonna go this tie.
It's a nice one—favorite of mine.
Here's what we got to do first, all right?
Got to drape it around your neck.
Now think of this as like a mirror.
This is my right. This is my left. Okay?
You got to have the wide end...
...draped over your right side.
The skinny end over your left side.
They should not at the bottom be even.
This side should be a bit longer than the thin side.
That having been established. You look at the top.
They should still be relatively the same. It shouldn't be...
...too disproportionate at the top here. All right?
Take the thick end,
cross it over the skinny end like that. That's pretty easy.
Use your thumb to hold the two in place, right?
So if you don't hold it, it's just gonna fall apart like that.
So you gotta cross this end,
over the skinny end so now it's kind of reversed.
You have your thumb there on the back holding them together.
Now keeping it like this—see where my fingers are.
On the front here keeping it together; thumb on the back keeping it together.
Simply take...
...the thick end,
and wrap it around the back. Wrap it around your thumb there.
Take these fingers now, kind of like you're pinching it.
There you go. Now the whole thing with the fingers—that's just easy—as I said, it doesn't fall apart,
but you can see pretty much I just took that thick end and wrapped it around.
I wrapped it around that little area that's crossed over.
The next thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna take what's left of the thick end.
See right here, see this little opening that exists?
I'm gonna take that. We're gonna shoot it through there.
So now it's going over the top,
and what do we do as a finale, you see this?
I could get my finger through there. That's the tie knot.
This is where the thick end goes through.
Don't have to worry about anything else now. Just slide it through, just like that.
And using the skinny end
tighten it up.
Pull the skinny end...
...like that.
you have yourself...
...a four-in-hand...
...tie knot.
Now you might run into the occasional problem.
You know, you see...
Well, you see what you see, of course, let me...
...Let me try and show you where on me this goes. Let me...
...show you a bit, but you can see how it goes around to the belt.
Truthfully you're going to get some people who are very adamant when it says,
"What... you know, it should be right by the belt,
it shouldn't exceed it or else you're gonna be..."
You know.
Forget that. If it goes an inch past the belt or if it's an inch higher than the belt again,
95% of people. They're not gonna care.
They just see you wearing a tie and that's it.
Most of the occasions that require you wearing a tie,
it's not going to be a fashion show. Most people aren't going to care.
One issue that might emerge is you might tie a tie, looks good, good knot,
but this end is longer than this end.
I ruined it, didn't I?
A lot of people will tell you that you did. Personally for me,
you know if I'm just... if I don't want to do it again, they're fine.
Just in a bit of a hurry, what I'll do sometimes is I just take the skinny end...
This is the little trick. If this ends up being substantially longer than the thick end,
which is considered a fashion faux pas.
Just put it through the little...
...label on the back,
then just kind of double it up...
...on itself.
Just do that.
No one's gonna notice and there you go problem solved. Tie still looks alright.
But again, when it comes down to the tie's length,
—lets us change the view briefly—
again it should go roughly to where the belt is, but it could exceed it by an inch.
If it's a little shorter that's okay.
If it like goes down to here that's you know, then you should redo it.
Or if it's really, you know... Like that far, should probably redo it. But otherwise...
...It's okay.
Good beginner's knot. Good basic knot.
Goes with a lot of suits, a lot of outfits.
In my early videos I even wore this necktie knot
as my basic one until I ended up switching over to the half windsor knot.
And around probably September of 2011,
but nowadays you can still find me wearing this necktie knot when I wear it with a wing collar.
It's a very archaic look.
You're not going to see a lot of people wearing this today.
It's considered far more formal and again, very archaic.
Some people will say, "You shouldn't wear it like that."
Then as I said, establish your own style,
rock it, own it, do what you like to do.
And historically speaking, It's a correct look but it stems from the early 1900's.
It's one that I still wear regularly even here in Florida I wear this.
And again, I don't even get a lot of weird looks at this point.
Maybe I stopped paying attention.
Anyway, the four-in-hand necktie knot.
Those are for neckties.
All right, our next one is a bit more complicated,
as if I didn't make that one complicated enough. The half windsor.
This is my go-to knot that I tie every single day.
I'm so used to doing it by now, I'll just tie it very quickly just to show you...
...how overly confident I am at my abilities.
You'll see this is just what I end up doing every day.
And this is the knot that I go with.
Most often, of course, I'm going to show you in much greater detail.
But this is the tie...
...knot that is my go-to choice. I just like I just like...
...I just like the way it looks more than the four-in-hand,
and it just kind of suits this type of collar a little better also.
This is the tie knot that I go with the most.
It's a much more complex knot than the four-in-hand is.
Keep that in mind, if you're just learning how to tie your tie, you know,
you gotta wear one for a presentation, an interview,
a wedding or funeral...
Just wanna, you know...
...wear one. go with the four-in-hand it's a not that you can't go wrong with,
and then once you kind of get more confident in...
...neck tying abilities,
then move on and I would say the half windsor is a nice place to kind of step it up a notch.
I think it looks a little more... a little more formal than the four-in-hand knot,
and it's again the tie knot that I wear almost every single day,
unless I'm wearing a wing collar shirt.
So let's begin.
Also an easy way to untie the necktie:
don't pick it the knot and try to do it.
Just pull on this end and just pull it like that.
And there you go.
So here's what you do:
Thick end, thin end. Similar to how it was the first time.
Again don't have them too disproportionate at the top,
always easier to work with a little less fabric and it adds up pretty quick.
First things first...
...one over the other.
Here's where it gets different right away.
See this little gap right here? You cross it over like this.
Take the thick end and again, you see this gap right here, between the...
... the necktie band and your collar.
This gap room—my whole hand is sticking out.
Okay, take the thick end...
...go underneath—not over.
See it's already like that. Go underneath and put it through that gap.
When I pull on it a bit, you could let go. It's kind of steadied. Pull on it like so.
What do we do now? You see we kind of have a knot right there already. Very simply done.
Take the thick end like this.
Now you need to do... I always like to put my finger here just to support it.
Just put it over the top, just like that.
Simple.
Put it just... you know.
Again, you have the knot here. Get the thick end, just cover it up. Cover it up like that.
Pretty easy and then just like the four-in-hand, we have this little hole right here.
Get this.
Stick it through and now much similar to the four-in-hand knot.
So you can see, we have ourselves a knot.
Could stick your finger through there. That's where the...
...end of the tie goes.
Pull on it a bit to get that perfect geometry of the knot,
and pull on both ends like that somewhat.
And the skinny end.
Get it up to the collar there.
Make sure it looks good. I always recommend doing this in front of a mirror.
And there you go—the half windsor knot.
This one is pretty fine when it comes down to length.
Again, it just pretty much reaches the belt.
You know, if it gets... if it's too long,
and you really pressed for time and you say, you know,
you could do a real simple thing.
You could tuck your tie into your pants, most...
Again, most people aren't gonna care one single bit.
If you want to go with this look,
you'll even find a few really weird articles and GQ and whatnot
that are going to talk about how fashionable that is or whatever.
But again, most people aren't gonna care. They're just going to see someone wearing a tie...
That's what matters. So...
That's a guide—hopefully comprehensive—
of how to tie two necktie knots.
The four-in-hand and the half windsor.
A half windsor knot the one that I tied now.
My go to...
...knot for daily use. I think it just goes well with suits. It's a little bit more formal. A knot.
But again, if I were you, if you're just getting into "the world of neckties".
Start out with the four-in-hand. Easiest one, and then from there move on to the half windsor.
If you want to go really old-school like I do sometimes, you could use the four-in-hand,
for detachable collars, wing collars,
stand-up imperial collars,
and just save, you know, save the the half windsor for any downturn collars.
This doesn't really look too good with any specialized wing collars or anything like that.
This is just a good... I'd say for business wear, business suits.
Just a more formal knot. That's why I like it. That's my go-to choice.
For when I tie a tie, which I do every single day.
Alright, I hope you enjoyed this video. Hope it proved to be somewhat useful for someone somewhere. Hope you enjoyed it.
We got a radio broadcast coming up this Thursday. Hope you can check it out.
On a shortwave radio I plug this stuff every single day pretty much.
Want to get a shortwave radio?
I have them on my amazon store.
You can find the links to it. Shortwave is a window to the world.
Something I would recommend you research, look into, very valuable communication medium.
You can hear my own show on it. Research it if you want. Something that you can really kind of...
...enter the rabbit hole as they say in regards to it.
But if you want to get a radio you find it on my Amazon store.
amazon.com/shop/thereportoftheweek
I'll see you in a couple days. Thank you for watching this tutorial.
Take care. That's all.