CSI Miami and Men's Skinny Ties

The opening scene of a rerun of a CSI Miami episode featured a fashion show runway flooded with water, a model with handcuffs who gets electrocuted, and a young male designer wearing a scarf knotted around his neck like a men’s skinny necktie. Was that young designer really wearing a man’s designer necktie? He was a man. He was a designer. And he did have fabric knotted around his neck. The ends of the scarf appeared square, emulating the contemporary trend of the skinny necktie. But was that really a necktie? History offers some clues.

The Historical Development of Neckties

The necktie dates back to ancient Rome and China. Both Roman and Chinese warriors wore fabric wrapped around their necks for protection. But although this was scarf-like, it was not a decorative necktie like those worn by today’s man.

The Cravat

Next in the history of men’s neckwear comes the cravat. The cravat was introduced to men’s fashion in the 17th century. Costume scholars designate this the true ancestor of the contemporary mans necktie. Fancy scarves of linen and lace were wrapped around the neck. The most flamboyant young men tied big bows of the fabric in front of their necks.

The Jabot

The next installment of the history of mens neckwear involves the jabot. The jabot was made of linen and lace but loosely tied around the neck. Eventually, some men added their own style by adding a gold stickpin to the front. This may be the precursor to the man’s tie tack.

The Four-In-Hand and Ascot

The four-in-hand tie and the ascot were the next to make an appearance. The four-in-hand tie evolved from the knot used by carriage drivers who drove gentleman during the 19th century in Great Britain. This tie gained more popularity when soft collared shirts came into their own in the 20th century.

And let’s not forget the ascot. Some suggest that the ascot is just another name for a cravat. Be that as it may, at the end of the 19th and into the 20th centuries men wore the four in hand tie for business during the day and the more stylish and dressy ascot at night.

20th Century Necktie Designers

Historically, the first designers of ties in the United States worked for shirt companies. However, as in all industries, young independent business people set out to build their business by designing their own ties. Ralph Lauren and Countess Mara are two excellent examples. These two are especially noteworthy because their neckwear is still produced today. One of the reasons is that these designer neckties have creatively evolved with the times.

And the young designer on CSI? We see historically, that ties were originally scarves. The trend today is to wear men’s thin skinny ties. So the young designer in tying a skinny scarf around his neck was tapping into his roots while keeping with the contemporary fashion. As any style conscious person he wanted to add his own personality to modern fashion.

He did. And fortunately for him, he turned out to not be the murderer. However, he was up to his necktie in drug trafficking.

CSI Miami and Men's Skinny Ties by strangelittlebird is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://hubpages.com/hub/CSI-Miami-and-Mens-Skinny-Ties.