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TYING A WINDSOR KNOT

Every boy learns a basic tie knot in school – the ‘four-in-hand’ or ‘schoolboy’ knot. You can probably do it in your sleep. However, that’s no reason to go through your whole life tying the same knot. The Windsor knot is just as easy to do – and it’s a neat, symmetrical knot. In From Russia, With Love, Ian Fleming writes that a Windsor knot is too flashy – a knot that rouses James Bond’s suspicions. If that was ever true, it isn’t now. The Windsor is used by the Royal Air Force and the armed forces of Canada and the United States. It suits a wide collar. Tie it a dozen times. Chances are, you’ll never go back to your primary-school knot again.

There is a ‘wide end’ and a ‘narrow end’ to a tie. That’s pretty much it for terminology.

1. Begin with the wide end ten or twelve inches longer than the narrow end. You’ll find a first position that works for you – and you’ll learn which shirt button (fourth or fifth) you prefer to align with the narrow end. Cross the long wide end over the narrow end.

2. Bring the wide end up underneath on the left side of the narrow end, pulling it through.

3. Take the wide end around the back of the narrow end and then over the right-hand side of the knot, pulling it through.

4. Completing the knot is very similar to the schoolboy knot. Take the wide end across, then up behind the knot. Poke it under the top layer and pull taut. Adjust as you would for the knot you know.

The result is pretty magnificent – a triangular, symmetrical knot – and simpler than most people realise. Left, right, across and under. Worth learning.