Written By
Gary Harrison
Gary Harrison can be regularly found dining at The Wolseley, and drinking at Dukes Bar where he has been known to exceed the two martini limit.
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Every man should have a favorite book, a favorite beer, a favorite sport, a favorite restaurant, and a favorite tie.
I once said that.
When it comes to knotting his tie a man should have a favorite method too. I only ever use a four-in-hand and important I never consciously add a dimple. Tie dimples are one of those things that seem to become an obsession for people who can’t dress themselves and need rule books to spell out to them what to wear whilst doing so naturally.
I overthink almost everything, have an almost unhealthy high regard for books and, as a result, have probably read more about the history of menswear than many, but I still don’t think you can learn how to dress yourself from a book.
Men should never obsess over the tie dimple or try and force one. Dimples are only cute on kids, and most of those grow out of theirs. I think dimples hold most weight with men who use Instagram hashtags like ‘sprezzatura’ and ‘gentleman’ — and dimples aside that’s not a good look. (Indeed, it’s probably up there with people who post selfies and whilst I’ve been known to do that to better illustrate an opinion — as I tell my kids — I’m not a good role model, do as I say and not as I do.)
I think, what I’m trying to say is that if you wear a tie most days (and even sometimes on holiday) you eventually outgrow any silly fixation and need to force a tie dimple too. To test this presumption, I Googled “George Plimpton” (a man who always looked like he slept in a tie on weekends) and it seems to affirm my point.
Like otherwise good things when seen sparingly — like well-worn oriental rugs, cocktails, cigars, Gianni Agnelli and James Bond — tie dimples are completely overdone in menswear. They’ve become such an affectation that I think they’re the modern equivalent of the Windsor knot — and from the pages of Fleming you know what Bond thought of those:
Bond mistrusted anyone who tied his tie with a Windsor knot. It showed too much vanity. It was often the mark of a cad.