Quintessential Knit Ties: Comprehensive Discussion & Appreciation

[terrorsquad]

I currently exclusively wear knit ties; I have RLPL, Tom Ford and those from Lanvin.

Does anyone have any experience on Dunhill knit ties?They are made in Germany (similar to Hermes) and are from mulberry silk (apparently a high quality silk)

 

[Sam Hober]



I currently exclusively wear knit ties; I have RLPL, Tom Ford and those from Lanvin.

Does anyone have any experience on Dunhill knit ties?They are made in Germany (similar to Hermes) and are from mulberry silk (apparently a high quality silk) 

I bought a Dunhill tie 20 years ago with a nice conservative pattern - not sure how they are today. The construction was average and factory made.

Almost all silk is Mulberry silk - so in this case it is clever marketing only.

The leaf of the Mulberry tree or bush is fed to silk worms.

We grow mulberry for silk and fruit on our farm on the hill above our workshop in the mountains of Northern Thailand.

These photos are from yesterday when we were making cuttings to plant new trees. If you look carefully you can see that the first two photos have larger Mulberry leaves - these are for the silk worms to eat. The photo of the cuttings shows smaller leaves these Mulberry trees are for fruit. Our staff love Mulberry fruit so the smaller leaved variety will be planted near the workshop where they eat lunch. Along with mangoes, bananas, papayas and lots of other fruits...

 

[Marco85]

Thanks for starting the thread, I do enjoy knit ties as well.

Going through your list:
- Square-end vs. pointed-end preferences: I prefer square-end. Even at work i still use those: true it's a tad more casual but with all the rest of your attire formal (e.g., shirt with cufflinks) it looks great.
- Width: I like 7 cm
- I like it crunchy but don't have a no strong point here.
- I wear both in winter and summer.

Makers: Brooks Brothers and Charvet. I find Hermès ones "too crunchy". I googled Sozzi, I think it could be an interesting one to try out, thank you very much for sharing @Bespoke DJP .

Below my fav bbrothers

 

[Bespoke DJP]

Hi everyone,

With autumn upon us, I am expecting to see the new F/W offerings that known (and yet-to-be-known) on line vendors are going to carry.

Still waiting for some intel on Calabrese1924 knit ties which have great F/W propositions as well!

Thank you for sharing @Marco85, it seems a great tie! Can you specify please its width in cm?

Cheers,

Dimitris

 

[Torzano]

I saw a nice looking knit tie on eBay with a flat bottom and width of 3.5 inches. I have never seen a knit tie that wide before. Would it look strange? That’s the width I prefer with silk ties and even with knit ties I like to find them a little wider at 3 inches but I have never seen a knit tie at 3.5 before.

 

[papado]

I saw a nice looking knit tie on eBay with a flat bottom and width of 3.5 inches. I have never seen a knit tie that wide before. Would it look strange? That’s the width I prefer with silk ties and even with knit ties I like to find them a little wider at 3 inches but I have never seen a knit tie at 3.5 before.

I think that would be huge. I believe typically you'd want something around 2cm smaller than your standard necktie width to keep things somewhat consistent; most ties have a taper of ~2cm from what I've read but if there's some more experts here they can certainly correct me! So you would want a knit tie of around 2.75in (~7cm) which would have the same thinner section width as a 3.5in standard tie (~9cm).

 

[bry2000]

Nothing wrong with the wider knit. Turnbull used to make them that width about 10-15 years ago.

 

[Torzano]

Nothing wrong with the wider knit. Turnbull used to make them that width about 10-15 years ago.

I’m just afraid of it looking like this

 

[bry2000]

If you are a small, skinny guy, maybe don’t go for a 3.5” knit. But if you are bigger and stockier, it will look better.

 

[comrade]

I have a few from Andre Oliver, an extraordinary store which closed
in New York in '86. I also still have their trousers which no longer fit.

Andre Oliver, 61, Clothing Designer For Pierre Cardin

Andre Oliver, Pierre Cardin's main assistant for more than 40 years, died at the Laennec Hospital in Paris on Thursday. He was 61 and lived in Paris. His friends said he died of AIDS.

timesmachine.nytimes.com

 

[SmoothLefty]

Does anyone know a source for long or extra long silk knit ties? These appear to be quite a rarity. I'm looking for a classic navy blue number in 2.5 or 2.75" width. 62" or longer.

I've spent the better part of a week scouring the internet without success, looking at both new and used ties. I even spoke on with phone with Paul Winston of Chipp and the best he could do was a batch custom order of 10+ ties.

Years back I managed to find a 66" one from Brooks Brothers but it's only 2" wide and now has a snag right in the center, thus it needs replacing.

I'm looking for this...

 

[BlueSteel]

Does anyone know a source for long or extra long silk knit ties? These appear to be quite a rarity. I'm looking for a classic navy blue number in 2.5 or 2.75" width. 62" or longer.

I've spent the better part of a week scouring the internet without success, looking at both new and used ties. I even spoke on with phone with Paul Winston of Chipp and the best he could do was a batch custom order of 10+ ties.

Years back I managed to find a 66" one from Brooks Brothers but it's only 2" wide and now has a snag right in the center, thus it needs replacing.

I'm looking for this...

View attachment 1803543

If you are not insisting on a square bottom, I'd say order from Shibumi Firenze where you can select width, length and whether you want a 3-fold or 7-fold:

Bespoke ties - made to your specifications | Shibumi Firenze

Custom-made ties from Shibumi Firenze, tailored to your needs. ✓ Worldwide Shipping ✓ Classic Men's Fashion ► Shop now

shibumi-firenze.com

 

[Sam Hober]

The link goes to a woven made to measure grenadine not a knit tie.

It would be great if they offered made to measure or bespoke knits. But knits are normally made in tubes that are long and of a certain width so it is difficult to change the construction or width.

In theory a very large company could do it by having many widths in stock - which would solve the width challenge not sure how different constructions would be offered...

 

[BlueSteel]

The link goes to a woven made to measure grenadine not a knit tie.

Thanks for that - I was not grasping that distinction previously. I guess for me I was in a similar position to @SmoothLefty where I wanted a tie with that kind of look and I needed a long (65") tie, so I happily ordered one of those grenadine from Shibumi Firenze. I was more after an overall texture - did not really care about knitted vs. woven. So I guess I'm posting on the wrong thread here!!!

 

[Sam Hober]

Blue Steel,

I agree with you the overall texture is important.

Also the silk of the tie that you ordered is a beautiful probably woven by Bianchi.