The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie: The Science and Aesthetics of Tie Knots [Hardcover]

Thomas Fink (Author), Yong Mao (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2000

Until 1900 there was only one. In the 1930s, Edward, the Prince of Wales, became the unwitting embodiment of two more, even though he in fact wore neither. It was not until 1989 that a fourth became popular. Throughout the 150-year his-tory of the modern tie, only four tie knots have been recognized. That is, until now.

In this history of and guide to tie wearing, Thomas Fink and Yong Mao trace the peculiar evolution of the knotted neckcloth from the seventeenth century to its modern form. These two Cambridge physicists applied a model more often used to describe atomic motion to the twists and turns of this central item of men's dress. They discovered eighty-five ways to tie a tie, thirteen of which survived their aesthetic test, and earned their recommendation. The result is a rich blend of history, science, fashion, and practicality that will become the must-have accessory for all well-dressed men.

Wonderfully illustrated and wittily written, this little classic of sartorial elegance will charm and inform in equal measure.

Editorial Reviews

From Scientific American

New ways of tying a necktie appear rarely. Some 50 years passed between the introduction of the Windsor knot and the arrival of the Pratt knot in 1989. "Rather than wait another half-century for the next knot," Fink and Mao write, "we considered a more formal approach." And so they present 85 tie-tying techniques, each one shown in a drawing with instructions on how to achieve the desired result. They also offer a brief history of neckwear and photographs of famous figures wearing ties, among them Fred Astaire in a four-in-hand, Frank Sinatra in a Windsor knot and the Duke of Windsor not wearing a Windsor. But, being research physicists at the University of Cambridge, the authors are interested in more than sartorial versatility. They deal also with knot theory and topology. For the reader who wishes to probe tie-tying that deeply, they represent "knot sequences as random walks on a triangular lattice."

EDITORS OF SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

Review

"In an elegant world, an irreproachable tie knot is an essential part of one's toilette; it does not matter whether the knot is simple or complicated, because the art is what counts. There are some knots which seem casual in appearance, but which have taken considerable labour before the mirror, and many a stamped foot, many an exclamation of impatience."
-- Doctor A. Debray Hygiene Vestimentaire, 1857

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (October 3, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767906438
• ISBN-13: 978-0767906432
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #235,802 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Just Knots, May 26, 2001

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie: The Science and Aesthetics of Tie Knots (Hardcover)

When I started my current job, I checked to see if I would have to wear a tie. I do not like ties, but I did like _The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie_ (Broadway Books) by Thomas Fink and Yong Mao. There are indeed eighty-five ways to tie a tie, and they prove it, and they show them all. If you wear a tie, or know someone who does, and especially someone who does under protest, this is a useful and entertaining little book.

But how does anyone prove that there are eighty-five ways to tie a tie? Well, the genial authors explain: "Tie knots, we realized, are equivalent to persistent random walks on a triangular lattice." If that explanation strikes you as less than useful, you can turn to the appendix at the back of the book, where you will find the random walk explanation proved by means of equations with symbols and superscripts which I cannot reproduce here. Comes the explanation: "Our day job as theoretical physicists might have had something to do with it." It does not take a mathematician to enjoy this book, however. What the authors have done is to examine all the variations of how to tie a standard tie. This means that one leaves the little end alone and makes the big end travel around to form the knot. Having crossed the little end, the big end can go to the left of it, or right, or to the center (where the neck of the wearer is). That is three possible moves, and within each of the three fields, the big end may either go in toward the wearer or out away from the wearer, for a total of six moves in all, not counting the final move, which is always to pull the big end down through the knot to its final resting place. Each knot can thus be specified with permutations of six simple moves. The simplest is the three-move variety called the "Oriental," the most complex is the nine-move memory-breaker known as the "Balthus." Windsor, half-Windsor, four-in-hand, and all the others are shown and instructions given. The authors have also noted the methods which might help make a more impressive knot in a lightweight tie, or in a tie that has grown limp with use, and various other suggestions. There is art here as well as science.

This is a unique blend of mathematics, sartorial history, and fashion instruction, wittily presented and attractively illustrated. If we have to have ties, we might as well let them teach us something.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review from Physics World, January 2000, November 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie: The Science and Aesthetics of Tie Knots (Hardcover)

Publishers seem to have hit on a winning formula for non-fiction books in recent years. Take a seemingly esoteric subject, mix in lots of history, add plenty of anecdotes, keep it short, and print the book in a nice, compact form with expensive paper and lots of arty pictures. The best-selling Longitude by Dava Sobel led the way, now...repeated with this book on the physics of tie knots.

It's a brilliant idea for a book. Thomas Fink and Yong Mao are condensed-matter theorists at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, and their work on tying knots made headlines around the world last year after it was published in Nature (1999, 398, 31). Using ideas from statistical mechanics, they worked out that there are 85 ways to tie a necktie. However, only 13 of these knots were deemed to be aesthetic on the grounds of "symmetry" and "balance". Three of these - the Windsor, the half-Windsor and the four-in-hand - were already widely known, whilst a fourth, dubbed the Nicky, was found to be a simpler version of the unaesthetic "Pratt", which was invented to much acclaim in 1989. This left nine brand new ways to tie a tie.

This book provides a full description of how to tie each of the 85 ties, with pictures of the 13 aesthetic ones. There is a history of tie-wearing - the Duke of Windsor apparently did not invent the Windsor - and a brief discussion of the science of knots. There are also some pictures of various celebrities wearing ties - Ernest Rutherford, it seems, favoured the four-in-hand.

So rather than publish what could have been a straightforward but possibly dull book about the science of knots, the authors have thought laterally to come up with an imaginative and clever book that must have had the publishers' marketing executives licking their lips. Other physicists who think they have a book inside them could do well to study this book's successful formula.

Martin Durrani, for Physics World.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful read, October 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie: The Science and Aesthetics of Tie Knots (Hardcover)

I've really enjoyed reading this book. I could have learned to tie ties as never before, but I have also enjoyed reading the history and anecdotes of the neckwear. The language of the book is concise and elegant. There are illustrations and pictures of tie tying and of historical fitures wearing their neckwear in style. It's a book to read for the science of tying a knot as well as the fun of it.