10 Interesting Facts About Bow Ties

Bow ties are like pocket squares: key staples in any man’s wardrobe that have the ability to dress up even the most casual look. As 28 August is National Bow Tie Day, we highlight the Top Ten facts about this small piece of clothing.

If you don’t have a bow tie to wear on National Bow Tie Day, what kind of sartorialist are you? They are the most important accessory in white-tie and black-tie events (a tailcoat or tuxedo without a white or black bow tie would be incomplete formal attire), but you can dress up a smart casual look with it as well.

Happily, we’ve seen a recent surge in the popularity of freestyle bow ties, and nowadays a lot of grooms pair them with a waistcoat for a retro style, instead of a traditional wedding suit. Whether you prefer a pre-tied bow tie or you want to learn how to tie one, you won’t have problems. Neckwear has evolved to move this garment outside of formal occasions too.

Cotton, linen, tweed, sequins, mixing patterns, floral, polka dots… there are hundreds of styles and they don’t have to be paired with a crisp dress shirt anymore. There are no general rules about how to wear them in smart casual looks either, but they can easily transform your outfit into well-dressed attire.

These are the 10 interesting facts about bow ties:

1. The world’s biggest bow tie is as big as a great white shark

We all know great white sharks are colossal fish. They average at about 15 feet in length, and have around 300 teeth. The biggest bow tie in the world is about the same size, at 15 feet wide when tied and 7 feet tall - and no teeth.

This huge piece of neckwear was created in 2014 by San Diego resident Zach Barnhorst as a publicity stunt for his bow tie shop. Ever the traditionalist, Barnhorst opted for self-tie over pre-tied, requiring help from several assistants to tie the knot. The young record breaker was then awarded an over-sized certificate for his achievement.

2. The most expensive bow tie in the world cost $30,000

The idea of giving a bow tie to Dad for Christmas might seem cliché, but what if it’s a designer piece embroidered with hundreds of diamonds? Then the cliche becomes a $30,000 work of art. Is it worth it? If this present goes over the top of your budget, you can always go for a less than half-price version of $12,000, made in white gold and black diamonds.

Are you concerned those options might be too shiny for him? You can check out other colour and material options in our bow tie collection (some of them cost less than £10!).

3. The world’s youngest bow tie entrepreneur

Not all teenagers spend most of their time playing Minecraft and Fortnite or documenting their life on Instagram or Snapchat, and here’s the exception that proves the rule.

Moziah “Mo” Bridges started making bow ties when he was nine and he’s the now the proud owner of a global brand. It was his grandma who taught him how to sew, and once he’d reeled off a few designs he decided to set up his own Etsy shop.

Before long, people all over the world were wearing the creations of this Memphis-based entrepreneur. His company inked a seven-figure one-year licensing deal with the NBA when he was 15 years old to produce these accessories for all 30 professional basketball teams.

He will graduate high school in 2020.

4. “Bow ties are cool”

When Matt Smith landed on our screens as the new Dr Who in 2010, global bow tie sales spiked, with some shops reporting increases of up to 94%. In his first episode, the actor declared “Bow ties are cool” and it seems like the world agreed with him. And let’s face it, they are really cool and nobody forgot them almost a decade later.

They are so cool as there’s a new revival thanks to the Peaky Blinders look and the British Heritage style. Heavy wool dark coats, vintage tweed suits, newsboy flat caps, tweed waistcoats, tweed bow ties, and penny collar shirts are some of the timeless garments that are becoming super trendy here in the UK and abroad.

Photo: Peaky Blinders is a Bafta award-winning drama series.

5. There is a 61,000 sqm mixed-used building shaped like a bow tie

We have walkie-talkies, we have gherkins, we have giant shards of glass. Now Denmark has given the world an extraordinary bow tie-shaped building. If that wasn’t cool enough, residents of this accessory-shaped apartment block can cycle from the street right up to the penthouse along terraced gardens that wind up the walls – to encourage ‘neighbourly encounters’, according to the architects.

6. There was a bow-tie-shaped beer

How can anything bow-tie-shaped spark anger, you ask? When it involves less beer for more money. Budweiser’s idea to create this can-shape duped customers in 2013 into spending the same amount of money on less alcohol.

Despite its cool shape, the bowtie-shape had not-so-cool factors: it not only used twice the amount of aluminium ... it also had a capacity of only 11.8oz instead of the usual 12. And as we know, every oz counts when talking about beer.

Photo: US beer brand Budweiser unveiled a bow tie shaped aluminium can.

7. The bow tie lady’s hairstyle

Not only is Lady Gaga one of the most recognized performance artists of the last decade, but she has also influenced the fashion world with her avant-garde haute couture look. It’s been more than a decade since the last time Lady Gaga rocked the hair bow, can you believe it?

Unlike the meat dress she wore to the 2010 MTV music awards or the McQueen Armadillo boots – bought at auction for £190,000 – which didn’t catch on, the bow tie hairstyle was one of her most iconic signatures. This feminine hairstyle created by stylist Patricia Morales, was replicated by young women around the world, and this famous hair bow has made a resurgence again: adding braids to the mix and mini bow ties in the MET Gala.

Photo: Bow tie hairstyle is feminine and trendy.

8. Clever people wear bow ties

Look back at history and you’ll see that a great number of famous bow tie wearers were academics, writers, scientists, and politicians. Famous bow tie wearers include Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and Sigmund Freud.

Are clever people drawn to bow ties, or are bow ties drawn to clever people? There’s something to think about, right?

9. Winston Churchill wore bow ties in remembrance of his father

Our penultimate ‘fact’ is quite heart-warming. According to Barry Singer, author of Churchill Style: The Art of Being Winston Churchill:

“He said his father wore spotted bow ties and he wore ones in tribute to him. He was distant and unavailable to the young Winston and they had a difficult relationship. I think Churchill always wanted to please his father.”

10. New Year’s Eve is the most popular time to wear a bow tie

While this may not be the kind of fact you’ll want to reel off to impress people at dinner parties, it is still a fact and it is still about bow ties. So here we go: according to the bow tie enthusiast blogger behind Bow Tie Aficionado, the most popular time of the year to wear a bow tie is New Year’s Eve.

With New Year’s Eve just some months away, you might want to get cracking.

Men, women and pet all around the globe come together to celebrate a National Bow Tie day once a year. Do you want to join the #NationalBowTieDay fray? Share with us your best bow tie photo on Instagram.