A Guide To Tie Width and Wearing Tie Bars by Aristocrats Bows n Ties

These days it seems like ties are getting skinnier and skinnier. This begs the question: What’s the proper, stylish width for a tie that will complete your business, leisure or evening outfit? The answer lies in proportion. After all, slimmer suits look better with slimmer ties although you do not want to go as far as ties that are an inch wide. A general guideline is to keep your tie width (which is the widest point before the tip at the bottom of the blade) approximately the width of the lapel on your suit. Of course other factors such as the material of your tie will also come into play.

When you’re sporting a tie, two things you need to keep in mind are:

You want to avoid looking like a congressman by wearing a tie wider than 3.25 inches.

 You want to avoid straying into fad territory by wearing skinny ties narrower than 1.75 inches.

Therefore your widest ties should measure 3.25 inches at the widest point while your narrowest should measure 2 inches. Of course fashion and personal taste account for something but everyone will agree (or should agree) that a six-button double-breasted jacket would look ludicrous if accessorized with a bootlace tie. Another consideration is colors and patterns; with checked and patterned ties you may want the ties to be on the wider side while the opposite is true for their knitted counterparts.

These days, a suited man without a tie bar runs the risk of looking slightly amateurish rather than dapper. Of course, if you’re wearing a tie bar, you also need to make sure you’re wearing it right.

There are 3 rules to wearing tie bars:

1) Always clip together three things- the two ends of the tie and the shirt's placket

2) Get the position right- between the third and fourth buttons of your shirt and

3) Never wear a tie bar wider than three quarters of the tie's width.