图片均来源于网络 | 侵删

加小助手VX【luluxjg1】领取全文逐字稿

The necktie has its roots in 17th-century Europe, when Croatian soldiers wore cloth bands around their necks as part of their uniform.

▼

These neck pieces caught the attention of the French, who called them “cravats”, and they quickly became fashionable at the royal court of King Louis XIV.

▼

Over time, the cravat evolved into the modern necktie, which became popular in business and formal wear.

▼

Wearing a necktie became a sign of elegance, respectability, and professionalism.

▼

In many cultures, a tie is part of a standard dress code for work, school, interviews, or ceremonies.

▼

Ties are also used to express personality and style, with different colors, patterns, and knots.

▼

Although some workplaces are becoming more casual, neckties are still common in formal or official settings.

▼

Today, ties are worn by people of all genders, but they are still most closely linked with traditional men’s fashion.

Useful Phrases

Expressions

“Wear a tie”

– “He always wears a tie to the office.”

“Dress formally”

– To wear smart or traditional clothes.

“You should dress formally for the interview.”

“Smart dress code”

– A set of clothing rules that requires neat, professional clothes.

“Tie a knot”

– The way a necktie is fastened.

“He learned to tie a Windsor knot.”

“Part of a uniform”

– A required item of clothing.

“Make a good impression”

– To appear confident or respectful.

“Business attire”

– Clothing suitable for professional settings.

Hi, everyone. And welcome back to one of your favorite segments. 【Oh, So that's why!】《原来如此》.Hi, 安澜.

Hi, Lulu, hi everyone.

In this segment, 安澜and I will explore some of the widespread traditions, customs and behaviors in western culture or cultures in general and get to the bottom of their origin stories.

Yeah, so what are we going to be talking about today.

Before we get into today's topic, you look very smart. Are you going somewhere? You're all dressed up with a suit and tie.

Well, I've got an important meeting after this, so...

So let's talk about that.

Okay.

Ties or neckties.

Oh, okay.

Why do men wear neckties, especially like for formal events?

It's a really good question because if you think about it, neckties are not very practical, are they?

They're also not very comfortable.

They're not very comfortable.They're not very practical.So why do we wear them?

And they do not have any real functions apart from giving you certain looks.

More exactly. So the necktie actually comes from 17th century Europe. This is when soldiers from Croatia.

克罗地亚 .

They used to wear cloth bands around their neck as part of their uniforms.

You know what, I sort of guessed that it probably began as part of a military attire.

On yeah. So they used to wear these cloths around their neck, but they weren't really ties how we saw them today. So they were more like light scarves and they became very popular and in France they developed into something called a cravat.

Even nowadays they are cravats, although they're very showy. I don't know if our audience know what they are.They are kind of like a scarf for men.

Yes.

They're much wider and much looser than a tie, 这个叫做领巾.

And they normally have a pin in them as well because they're really really elaborate. They take a lot of time to put on.

I've seen you wear cravat one time.

Yes. It's incredibly rare.

If you're not all dressed up or if you're not like into fashion or trends, you don't tend to wear cravat, no. And not that many men would look good with a cravat.

Yeah. So when you think about what people used to wear in Victorian Times when they have that silk satin necktie that is a cravat.

Usually with the... that special type of shirt.

Yes. Obviously a cravat during the Industrial Revolution became quite impractical. People were busy, but they still wanted something that was somewhat similar to look a little bit more formal.

That's how it evolved into the modern necktie?

That is exactly what happened .

Much thinner and much more...I would say formalized.

Yes. So wearing a necktie became a sign of professionalism, respectability really.

You said it's a sign of respectability, is it because it was somewhat linked with people who are working jobs that are more intellectual rather than... because manual laborers they do not wear ties.

No. Because they're not very practical.They're also very dangerous as well If you're doing manual labor what happens if the tie gets caught.

In the machine or something.

Exactly. So it's a sign of that you’re probably working in a desk job. You have a job that's probably slightly higher status and even nowadays for example the police they wear neckties, but they don't wear proper necktie.They wear something called a clip-on necktie.

A clip-on. So usually neckties are tied on. You need to use a special way to tie a knot.就系领带, 它不是有专门的一个打法, 还不是每个人都会你还得学.

The knot is already, there is the hidden clip, you just clip it on. From afar it looks like that you've tied it on, but it's actually a clip-on tie.

Yeah. So police have to wear this because simply if they are in a fight or if they are trying to arrest someone, you know and the person pulls the tie, it just comes off.

Yeah. It doesn't end up strangling the policeman.

Exactly.

But why do they even need a necktie?

Because it is still seen as part of the uniform, part of the uniform, it's still seen as professional. And this is not just for work, but this is also for schools as well.

Yeah. Sometimes I see these little kids in the UK to go to school in their school uniforms and they have a tie, not just the boys, the girls as well.

Yeah. I had a school tie.

That is adorable.

Yeah, it was black with blue and yellow in it. So that was a symbol of our school that was part of our uniform.

That is another thing, because the tie is so formulaic. It's so much formality. How do people express individuality is by the design, the color, the pattern and the knots.

Oh yeah. So you can get novelty ties, you can get funny ties, and... but there were also ties to show that you belong to a club, for example, or even regimental ties. So to show if you were a soldier.

Yeah, those are very, very symbolic. I think you probably have noticed a lot of these things we talk about the customs, the behaviors, a lot of these they have something to do with symbols and many things have symbolic meanings.

Yeah. So nowadays, though, lots of workplaces becoming more casual.

So for me, I sometimes wear a tie if I do a presentation or if I have a big meeting I wear a tie; but more often than not I would just wear a suit and an open collar.

Because that's enough nowadays really, you don't really need to wear a full tie.

That is true. Basically after the pandemic, even the most traditional industries like banking, they started to have less strict dress code. By the way that's another thing.

Dress code就是着装的一个规矩.

And these traditional especially professional service industries, they used to require their employees like law firms or consulting firms or financial firms, banking industry, they used to require their employees to wear full on suit and tie.

But nowadays a lot of people would actually do like what you were saying, still wearing something smart but without a tie.

Yeah. Because things are changing. And personally, I should quite like one at a time, it does make me feel a bit more formal, even if it is rather uncomfortable.

By the way, who taught you how to tie the tie ?

My dad.

Is that some sort of rite of passage for every boy?

I was taught that when I went to highschool,  when I went to  secondary school, when I was about 11, 12, my dad taught me how to tie a tie because I need to do it myself for my own school uniform.

That is adorable.

All right and let's move away a little bit from tie itself to talk about bow tie.就是领结。

That I don't know how to tie.

I always thought they were just clip on, but maybe those were just cheapy ones.

Yeah. You can get clip on bow ties which I've used in the past myself because I don't know how to tie an actual bow tie.

In English there is a dress code called black tie.

Yes.

So if a party requires you to wear black tie, that's not actually a tie, it's a bow tie. 就是所谓的黑领结的这种着装要求, and that's already very, very formal.

Yeah, so that is when you have to wear a black bow tie and an evening suit or in America they call it tuxedo.

A tuxedo, 一个燕尾服and there's a level even more formal than this called white tie.

It's a white bow tie, but I don't think average Joe like us everyday folk would really be involved in that type of events. Usually you hear that about celebrities.

Well, you have to wear a tailcoat, so that's a coat that has a bit of a tail, a white waistcoat and a white bow tie. So it's very very very formal.

Most people will never really be anywhere near that kind of events.

No, the only times that people will wear cravats or waistcoats in that way or wear tailcoat is a wedding.

Or if you are some sort of fashion blogger.

Well yeah, that as well.

Fashion influencer.

All right. And on that note we're going to wrap up here. Leave us a comment in the comment section and tell us if you wear a tie, do you like people who wear ties and put in your request for any new topic that you want us to talk about.

So until next time.

We'll see you next time.

Bye .

Bye.