How To Tie A Wedding Cravat Or Formal Ascot For Proper Traditional Morning Wear

Learn how to tie a formal daywear ascot which is also known as the cravat. It’s an item with a very vintage aesthetic and it’s particularly popular in Britain. We can still see worn for weddings, or at Royal Ascot when people wear morning wear with a top hat and a proper type Ascot.

Click Here To Learn How To Tie A Casual Ascot

 

Black and Silver Silk Traditional Ascot Cravat for Morning Wear – Fort Belvedere

What’s The Difference Between A Formal Ascot And A Casual Ascot?

Shape

One thing that stands out immediately is the shape. The formal Ascot is quite wide and has a slim band that’s consistent in the middle which is something that will be around your neck. Basically, it has the same shape on both ends. A casual ascot is similar in the shape, however, it usually has a kind of folded neckband which is worn around the neck.

Interlining

The other difference is that a casual ascot is just silk and there’s no interlining. On the other hand, a proper formal ascot is much stiffer because you want it to hold a shape and a fold of the knot you want because of that, it’s silk with an interlining which makes it thicker and more robust in terms of keeping its shape.

Perfectly Worn With A Wing Collar

Another important distinction is that the casual ascot is worn inside of your shirt and it pops up from underneath your unbuttoned top shirt collar and the formal daywear ascot is perfectly worn with a wing collar.

Gentlemen at Royal Ascot in Morning Coats with Balmoral Boots and Button Boots

 

Black and Silver Stripe Silk Traditional Ascot Cravat for Morning Wear – Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere ascots are made of high-quality Italian wedding silk and so it is the perfect item for a formal wedding or a day at the Royal Ascot at the races. If you want to, you can keep everything in place with a stick pin. A formal ascot is probably the most formal piece of silk neckwear that you can wear and you can pull it off the proper way. It’s extremely elegant and debonair. Some people like the Victorian flair of it because it was very popular around the Fin De Siècle and the early days of the 20th century.

Two Ways To Tie An Ascot

The Popular Way

The Popular Way

The first one is the more popular one mostly seen at wedding parties. It’s basically like a four in hand just with a slight adaptation. If you think that a formal Ascot is simply too much for you, you can get our regular three-fold ties in the same wedding silks in our shop as well, please take a look. Of course, if you decide to go with a formal ascot, you always want to go with a detachable winged collar and not with a turndown collar. It would simply look odd.

1. Find the label in the middle of the formal ascot and place it firmly against the back of your neck.
2. You don’t want both sides to be at the same length so you pull on the right side until it’s about 4 to 5 inches longer which is about 10 to 12 and a half centimeters. Ideally, you want the formal ascot to be very wide on the left side and very slim on the right side.
3. Now you take the slim end from the right, fold it diagonally over the left, with your left hand take the part that you just fold it over and bring it back to the original side, pull it a little snug.
4. Now again, bring that end that you just brought to the right and fold it over once more around to create what will be the knot.
5. Now with your left hand, you take the tip go back behind and push it up from the back so it comes out on top. Pull a little bit so your knot tightens up a little bit. Just like a regular four in hand knot, you take the tip now and push it through the hole that you just created. Ideally, you want to pull up and push up that knot a little bit so you create some wrinkles and so it doesn’t look like a regular necktie. You’ll also notice it’s much bigger and that’s okay.
6. Once you’ve done that, simply pull on the long end in the back and adjust the knot until it sits snugly against your collar. As you can see, the front end is much shorter than the back end and it looks kind of odd, however, you only wear a formal Ascot with a formal waistcoat or a vest.
7. So as a final step, you simply have to tuck it into your vest and it looks great. Voila! the popular way to tie a formal Ascot. If you’re not wearing it at the end of the day, simply unravel the knot in the opposite way you tied it which means you pull through the front part first and unwind it, very simple.

The traditional way

The Traditional Way

1. First, locate the label in the middle of the formal Ascot and place it firmly against your shirt collar. Once again, you pull the right side slightly longer about three to four inches or seven and a half to 10 centimeters.
2. Now the right side is folded over the left side and then brought up through the hole that you just created in the back.
3. Now the part that you just pull through should be in your right hand and the other part should hang straight down.
4. Now you take the part that just hangs down with your left hand and point it to your right. Subsequently, you take the piece in your right hand and you just pull through and fold it over so now it points downwards.
5. Once you’re done with that, you take the point that hangs down vertically and bring it up through the loop you just created from underneath.
6. Once we got it through the hole, you pull firmly on both ends of the formal ascot. You can adjust the knot a little bit and you can see it creates a horizontal knot with some wrinkles. Now ideally, you want to take the item on the left and have it point to the right, and the item from the right point over to the left. Basically, the two ends cross each other.
7. Now that you have folded over both ends in an X shape, you can tuck them into your waistcoat, keep adjusting until you like the look.

Wedding entourage in light pink formal ascots

Now it’s time for a tie stick pin. A tie stick pin is a simple pin that is decorative. The most traditional thing is maybe a pearl, but you can also have maybe a knot or any other kind of precious or semi-precious stone. The easiest way to find one is at vintage stores, flea markets, or on eBay.

Now you want the decorative element of your tie stick pin to be exactly in the middle when you look at it from the front and about two to three maybe four inches below the knot. Don’t have it too low and not too close to the knot. You can use the gorge of your morning coat lapel for a good indicator on where you want it to sit.

If you’re right-handed, hold the ascot up with your left and poke through the tie stick pin through the silk knot. Now that you poked through silk, carefully poke it through the middle of your shirt fly and back out to the front. That way, the pointy end of the tie stick pin is against your skin, you won’t hurt yourself, and it’s on the top part of the fly. Not only is it a decorative item, but it also keeps your formal ascot in place all day no matter if you run, dance, or celebrate because your horse just won.

What’s your take on formal ascots? How do you usually wear them? Drop a comment below!

How To Tie A Wedding Cravat Or Formal Ascot For Proper Traditional Morning Wear published first on https://medium.com/@CostumeCorner