Bow tie

It consists of a ribbon of fabric tied around the collar of a shirt in a symmetrical manner so that the two opposite ends form loops.

This was soon adopted (under the name cravat, derived from the French for "Croat") by the upper classes in France, then a leader in fashion, and flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The lavallière is a type of cravat similar to the bow tie that was popularly worn in the 19th century in France.

To its devotees, the bow tie suggests iconoclasm of an Old World sort, a fusty adherence to a contrarian point of view.

Bow ties, or slight variations thereof, have also made their way into women's wear, especially business attire.

The 1980s saw professional women, especially in law, banking, and the corporate world, donning very conservative tailored suits, with a rise of almost 6 million units in sales.

[citation needed] Russell Smith, style columnist for Toronto's The Globe and Mail, records mixed opinions of bow tie wearers.

He argues that anachronism is the point, and that bow tie wearers are making a public statement of their disdain for changing fashion.

In Smith's view, the bow tie is "the embodiment of propriety", an indicator of fastidiousness, and "an instant sign of nerddom in Hollywood movies", but "not the mark of a ladies' man" and "not exactly sexy".

[7] He attributes the building of this image to the association of the bow tie with newspaper editors (because of their fastidiousness with words), high-school principals, and bachelor English teachers.