Prowse & Hargood Shirtmakers · Restored Archive
A navy woven silk tie draped beside the collar of a white cotton shirt

A navy woven silk tie draped beside the collar of a white cotton shirt

An archive, not a shop. Prowse & Hargood ceased trading and the company behind it was dissolved. This site restores the house's own published writing about its shirts, cloth and craft. Nothing here is for sale, no order can be placed, and no prices, ordering routes or contact details are reproduced. More about this restoration.

How to Knot a Tie

Three knots covered everything Prowse & Hargood sold, and between them they still cover almost everything anyone needs. The instructions below are the house's own, step for step. Throughout, A is the wide end of the tie and B is the narrow end.

Before you start

Stand in front of a mirror with the collar up and the top button fastened. Drape the tie so that A hangs noticeably lower than B — how much lower is the only thing you will need to adjust between attempts, and a bulkier knot eats more length. All of the house's ties were 147 cm long and 9.5 cm wide at the blade, a standard size, so the same starting drop works for any conventional tie.

The Full Windsor

The widest and most symmetrical of the three. It suits a spread or cutaway collar, where a narrow knot would leave a gap, and it wants a tie of light to medium weight — a heavy woven silk in a Full Windsor produces a knot the size of a fist.

  1. Situate the tie so that end A is longer than end B, and cross A over B.
  2. Bring A up through the loop between collar and tie, then back down.
  3. Pull A underneath B and to the left, and back through the loop again.
  4. Bring A across the front from left to right.
  5. Pull A up through the loop again.
  6. Bring A down through the knot in front.
  7. Using both hands, tighten the knot and draw it up to the collar.

The Half Windsor

A single wrap rather than two, giving a neat symmetrical triangle about two-thirds the bulk of the Full. It is the most generally useful of the three: it holds its shape, it sits properly under a standard point collar and a moderate spread alike, and it works with heavier woven silks that would overwhelm a Full Windsor.

  1. Situate the tie so that end A is longer than end B, and cross A over B.
  2. Bring A up around and behind B.
  3. Bring A up.
  4. Pull A up and through the loop.
  5. Bring A around the front, over B from left to right.
  6. Again bring A up and through the loop.
  7. Bring A down through the knot in front.
  8. Using both hands, tighten the knot and draw it up to the collar.

The Four-in-Hand

The oldest and simplest, and deliberately asymmetric — it leans slightly, which is the point. It makes the smallest knot of the three, sits best under a narrow point collar, and is the right choice for a thick or heavily interlined tie.

  1. Situate the tie so that end A is longer than end B, and cross A over B.
  2. Turn A back underneath B.
  3. Continue by bringing A back over in front of B again.
  4. Pull A up and through the loop around your neck.
  5. Hold the front of the knot loosely with your index finger and bring A down through the front loop.
  6. Remove your finger and tighten the knot snugly to the collar by holding B and sliding the knot.

Getting the length right

A tie is correctly tied when the point of the blade reaches the middle of the waistband — no lower, and certainly no higher. If A finishes short, restart with a greater initial drop; if it finishes long, with less. The narrow end should sit behind the blade and, ideally, be caught by the keeper loop on the back so it does not swing out.

Looking after the knot

Undo the knot properly at the end of the day by reversing the last step rather than pulling the narrow end through — dragging a tie out of its own knot is what abrades the silk at the fold and eventually leaves a permanent line. Then store the tie rolled or hung, never knotted; the care guide explains why.

Why a tie hangs the way it does

All of this only works because the silk is cut on the bias — diagonally across the weave — so that the blade stretches evenly under tension and recovers overnight. A tie cut on the straight grain will twist away from the vertical no matter how carefully it is knotted. The glossary covers bias and the other construction terms, and the ties page describes the house's own woven silks.

The Windsor knots take their name from the Duke of Windsor's association with a wide knot in the 1930s, though contemporary accounts suggest he achieved it with thick tie linings rather than a distinct method; the Victoria and Albert Museum holds twentieth-century neckwear that shows the shift in tie width and lining over the period.