Neckties...?

[Bill in Maryland]

Hi there: Regarding suitable neckwear with the kilt (Dress Gordon here), I try to avoid a Gordon tie because I think it's just too much of a muchness. So I try to find something not too attention-getting. The real question for me is the length of the tie. Many of mine end up hanging down pretty far down over the kilt and I wonder if there's any consensus on where the tie should end. Finding one that's short enough is proving t be a bit of a headache. Your thoughts?

Thanks! Bill

[ASinclair]

I have a club tie that ends just above my sporran.

My school tie is much longer, and I tuck it in my kilt.

[Tobus]

Hi Bill,

This question comes up periodically. In an ideal world, wearing a necktie with a kilt should have the end of the tie coming down to where the point is around the top of a belt, if wearing a belt. It'll be much higher than how you'd wear it with trousers. This means that the tie has to get tied much shorter, which can cause issues if you're not a super-tall fellow. If you're not wearing a kilt belt, it can hang a little lower without issues, to the point where the bottom of the belt buckle would go.

Being a shorter fellow myself (5'-7"), I prefer to buy ties with a shorter length already, which can be tied shorter for a kilt without the skinny tail end hanging low. But for regular length ties, I either have to resort to tucking in the skinny tail end, or wearing a waistcoat to cover the bottom of the tie, or just shortening the tie myself. I have even been known to tuck the whole tie into my kilt (front and back tails), as some Scots do.

In this thread about converting fat ties to skinny ties, I mentioned in one of my later posts about shortening the skinny tail end of ties. It's pretty simple to do with scissors, a needle, and some thread. You needn't make it look perfect since the skinny end shouldn't be on display anyway, and the stitching will face your belly. I still have quite a few ties that I want to shorten in this manner. Many of them are still too long even when I'm wearing trousers, and WAY too long for wearing a kilt. I can take off a good 6" to 8" off these ties and still have them versatile enough for both trouser-wearing and kilt-wearing.

This is about the length I wear my ties without a kilt belt:




With a belt, either tied short or tucked in completely:

[Father Bill]

Glad to say, it's not a problem with clerical collars.

[Tarheel]

I agree with both Toby and Alan. A longer tie end need not interfere with the sporran.

[Scooter]

I used a trinity knot (https://www.ties.com/how-to-tie-a-tie/trinity) which allows the front, larger portion of the tie to be set and then the small end is under the collar. It is easier to check the link than for me to describe it. Alternatively, a normal Windsor knot can be tied and the small end, which will be longer can be tucked into your shirt, so the tie ends at the top of the kilt. If you are into fancy knots (I'm a sailor, and like the nerdy knots), you can try the Eldredge knot (https://www.ties.com/how-to-tie-a-tie/eldredge), which also ends like the Trinity knot in the shirt collar.

Just some suggestions which i hope you find useful.

[Tobus]

Scooter raises a good point. Using knot creativity to take up extra length of the tie can help. The downside is that the knots can get really bulky and distasteful, depending on one's collar size/type, or even the shape of their face and width of their shoulders. In cases where I've used a full Windsor knot, I feel like I've got this huge ball under my chin. So I'll go with a half-Windsor at most. But typically, I prefer the simpler knots these days like a four-in-hand. I'll use an extra wrap before knotting if I need to take up an extra inch or so from the tail. Varying the knot style really can make the difference when trying to get one's tie to just the right spot, front and back.

[cck]

With the kilt being worn higher on the waist, this always creates a problem for me. I adjust the tie, so when tied the front end is in the proper position. This makes the back end long, so I have to fold it or tuck it in so it does not show. Generally I solve this by wearing a bow tie.

[Dollander]

First time I saw the Eldredge knot, I misread it as "Eldritch" and was half-expecting something like this:



Sorry. Couldn't help it.


But in all seriousness...I personally like the cafe knot. It fits the criteria of using the skinny end for the knot as well as using up more tie, while being a bit more subtle and not quite as complicated:

[Liam]

The standard is that the widest part of the tie should be at the top of the trousers also applies to kilts. As kilts are traditionally worn higher than trousers the tie needs to be shorter. For that reason I prefer narrower ties (2.5 in) with a kilt. The wider ties tend to look like a napkin tucked into one’s collar imho. Another reason to wear a waist coat/vest.