subject: Men's Ties: Dos And Don'ts [print this page] You may have bought your first tie already, perhaps have had quite a collection of them but it is never too late or too early to find out if you have committed a cardinal sin in the world of tie buying and wearing - or if you have done the right thing and earned the right to pat yourself in the back.
Do Tie Them Right
Nothing ruin your whole attire more than a sloppily tied necktie. A tie is supposed to project sophistication and style; when your necktie is tied untidily you are telling people you are willing to pretend to follow the rules but you don't care enough to do it right.
There are videos on the Internet where you can learn how to tie a necktie properly. Barring that, you can always ask a friend to tie them for you and all you have to do is loosen the tie up to pull them off over your head or drape it around your neck and then pull to tighten the tie.
Do Go for Solid and Stripes
When you are only starting to build your tie collection, these are your best choices. It is nearly impossible to go wrong with solid color ties. Solid color and striped ties are good pairing for solid color shirts, which presumably are the majority of your wardrobe.
Always Do Pair Pattern with Solid
Once you have braved patterned ties, this is the only rule you need to remember. Pair your paisley tie with a solid color shirt and your striped shirt with solid color tie. The only exception to this rule are the thinly striped shirts. They barely registered as pattern although thinly striped white shirts end up having a hue. You can wear thinly striped shirts with patterned or striped ties as long as the patterns or stripes pick up the hue of your shirts.
Don't Go Big with Pattern
There are a lot of great pattern designs out there and you have the world of ties on your hand. Stripes, pattern, paisley, polka dot are all adorning neckties and doing so with great effects. What you need to do to avoid looking like a comic character is simply choosing said patterns which manifest themselves smaller. Go for thinner stripes, smaller dots, smaller paisley motif, you get the idea. When it comes to colors, go monochrome if you are not sure what you are doing.
Do Avoid Primary Colors
No male clothing items ever look good in primary colors, except for T shirts. And you don't want to project casual or playful, the impressions these colors tend to give. Always go for lighter or darker hues of a color.
Don't Go Cheap
Nothing ruin your immaculate look worse than frayed neckties. Neckties don't necessarily change with season and there is no need to follow trends when it comes to ties. The ties you buy may last you a very long time. Go for silk, there are reasonably inexpensive silk ties out there. They last longer and they give better impact.
