Neckties Through the Ages | Opening the Book on Old School Ties
Updated February 21, 2017 | Factmonster Staff 
Cambridge & Oxford School Ties
by David Johnson |
| NECKTIES THROUGH THE AGES | |
| Introduction • 210 B.C. China's First Emperor • 113 A.D. Did Romans Wear Ties? • 17th Century Croatian Cravats for the King of France Cravats Go to England Real Men Wear Lace • 18th Century Cowboy Bandannas from India Sailing the Seven Seas • 19th Century Business Suit Takes Shape Cambridge & Oxford School Ties Ties Fit for Officers and Gentlemen Bow Ties Center Stage A Tie Singing Dixie Lord Byron's Legacy Women Tie the Knot, Too! • 20th Century Paris Presents Designer Ties Celebrities & Rock Stars Ascots Cross Finish Line Bolo: The Tie That Won the West Turtleneck: The Anti-Tie |
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The I Zingari Cricket Club, founded by a group of Cambridge University students in 1845 is believed to have created the first sporting colors. They designed a flag of black, bright, orange-red, and gold, symbolizing "out of darkness, through fire, into light." Blazers, caps, and ties were eventually created in these colors.
Rowing colors
In 1880, the rowing club at Oxford University's Exeter College One men's club, invented the first school tie by removing their ribbon hat bands from their boater hats and tying them, four-in-hand. When they ordered a set of ties, with the colors from their hatbands, they had created the modern school tie. School, club, and athletic ties appeared in abundance. Some schools had different ties for various grades, levels of achievement, and for graduates.
Middle class pretensions
Such ties had enormous appeal to the vast Victorian middle class. As industrialization allowed for mass consumption of material goods, men wanted to stand out, to assert their social superiority, or to proclaim their allegiance to a group.
Today four-in-hand refers to both the standard necktie and the most common knot used to tie it.
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