Pratt knot

The Pratt knot is a method of tying a necktie.

[1][2][3] The knot was created by Jerry Pratt, an employee of the US Chamber of Commerce in the late 1950s.

[4] It was popularized as the Shelby knot after then 92-year-old Pratt taught it in 1986 to television reporter Don Shelby who he felt had been tying his tie poorly on the air.

[5] Shelby then refined the Pratt knot with local clothier Kingford Bavender and wore it on the air with a spread collar where it stood out and attracted attention for its symmetry and trim precision.

Before its popularization in a 1989 New York Times article, the knot was unknown within the fashion world and not recorded in the tie industry's standard reference guide of the time, Getting Knotted – 188 Knots for Necks by Davide Mosconi and Riccardo Villarosa in Milan, Italy.