How To Slim a Necktie

This instructable is the method I use to narrow the width of a standard off the rail three-fold tie.

Most ties are 3.50” wide with some places still trying to rid their stock of 4.00” ties of the 1990’s. I have a smaller than average build and suit a 2.75” – 3.00” wide tie which is often difficult to find in the colour or pattern desired so being able to slim a regular tie down is useful and convenient. This method will only work on a basic three-fold tie, the more fancy six and seven-fold ties are much more work and if you’re going to spend that much money on a tie, you might as well buy it properly than retrofit.  However, ties can be bought very cheaply, and if you find a pattern or colour you like, you can still modify the tie to fit your style.

Step 1 Some Background

Ties are an item of fashion that have been around for, quite some time. The proper application of a tie is a debatable matter and varies greatly with the tide of fashion. Ties come in many different designs, styles and colours but I believe general rule of ties should be thus:

1) Ties should be knotted to the correct length of just a smidge below the waistband of your trousers. Ties are generally 52” in length and corresponds to some “average” person, as such, the skinny end of the tie will be shorter than the fat end when tied correctly. For the shorter and taller people, they do make ties especially.

2) If wearing a suit with a patterned material e.g. pinstripe or check, then if the tie also has a pattern, the pattern should be a similar size to the suit pattern size.

3) Tie colour should be darker than shirt colour overall. If wearing a coloured shirt, a tie with accents of the shirt colour in the design works well. A white tie on a black shirt brings up connotations of gangsters.

4) The width of a tie should be the same as the width of the suit lapels. The current fashion trend is for skinny ties around 1.50” – 2.00”, so the suit lapels should be the same width. In my opinion, the lapel size should always measure just past the midpoint between the arm/shoulder seam and neckline of the jacket. Moving too far one way or the other creates the current look, or a 70’s look. Therefore, the size of a tie and lapel should reflect the build of the person and not trends, this is the key to a timeless look.

Comments

[CrLz]

Great Instructable- thanks for the thorough explanation. Your work is detailed and precise- high quality!

[Prfesser]

VERY nice, well illustrated and well-described, and something I had never considered! I have a bunch of ties that will go with various shirts but the ties are too wide. I'll be doing this in the near future. Many thanks!

[chiok]

Thank you! I had the similar issue with so many ties that were just the wrong size and this was an experiment to see if it could be done without totally ruining the tie. I do this to every tie now.

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