The Full Windsor

A well-tied tie is the first serious step in life. Oscar Wilde

As some of you may know SP has recently become a shopkeeper, a role some are saying he was meant to play. In addition to doling out the doodles on etiquette, manners and decorum, now the days are full of meeting and greeting, ordering and stocking. Picture Jerry Lewis bumbling around a bemused Dean Martin and your mind’s eye won’t be too far off the mark. So there I sit polishing silver in between writing up stationery orders when into the shop comes a hipster-type young gent wearing a sheepish grin. “I don’t know if this is something you could help me with,” he begins “but I was told you were one to know.”
    The clean but casual chap wore dark jeans, a black sweater, brown boots and one of those porkpie style hats the hip are so fond of. His quandary was thus. Our Henry Hipster has been invited to one of the many Oscar related events taking shape all over the town of Lost Angels this week. Just to let you know, there is London during Wimbledon, Tampa during the Super Bowl, New Orleans in Mardi Gras and Los Angeles during Oscar Week. The focus of a certain slice of attention concentrates and it seems there’s an extra current rippling through the air. Exciting, I must admit.
     At any rate, our young Henry strolls into the SP shop to ask if we might be able to help him tie a Full Windsor knot in his tie. SP was certainly surprised — note future post on judging people by the clothes they wear – and happy to help. And I applaud Henry for realizing a formal occasion calls for a formal tie and formal knot, hence the Full Windsor.
     Now there are myriad diagrams on the internet to instruct one on the how-to of tying a Full Windsor knot, so SP doesn’t need to go into all of that here. SP heretofore understood the style to be named for the Duke of Windsor’s grandfather King Edward VII who liked a wide knot and was thought to originate the style. A reader corrects us and his comment may be seen in the comments section.

Brooks Brothers has a nice explanation of when to wear which style and how to tie such. I think the lesson to glean here, at least the one that will brighten my corner, is that perhaps the times are changing. When a terminally hip Hollywood type seeks to do the proper thing at a so-called formal occasion, we are indeed on the right road to recovery. Ah, civility, propriety. It warms the heart.

SP recommends: The finest ties known to man are Charvet. This classic from J. Press is always appropriate. And always Brooks Brothers.