For men who think fumbling with a tie each morning is a pain in the neck, here comes a new wrinkle in the quest for a firm, symmetrical knot. It's an inside-out style called the Shelby.
Touted as the "first new knot for men in over 50 years" by a Midwest clothier, the knot was introduced to a Minneapolis TV anchorman by a viewer who chafed at his lumpy, twisted neckwear."I got sick and tired of looking at his tie every night. He always had a big knot in it," said Jerry Pratt, 92, a retired manager for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce who lives in Minnesota.
So in 1986, Pratt collared Don Shelby in the lobby of WCCO and, quick as you can say clip-on, shared a formula he had used for at least 40 years.
The secret is to start with the seams out. With a bit of sartorial sleight-of-hand, the knot forms securely and the broad part flows down the shirt, finished side out.
The shorter blade underneath still has the seams and the label facing out, although it can be clasped with a pin or twisted so the seams will turn in. It's simple to tie and works best with wider collars.
Pratt, as humble as he is meticulous, said he stumbled across the knot by accident and never thought of it giving it a name through decades of secure wear.
"One morning I put my tie on inside out, I tied it and it worked. That was it," he said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "The beauty of it is the knot won't twist to one side or the other. A tie sets the whole theme of dress. If it's twisted, that's the first thing people notice."
Joseph M, a custom men's clothier in St. Paul, Minn., learned of the knot, refined it and established the tie-in with Shelby. It printed a five-step diagram for customers seeking alternatives to the bulbous Windsor knot or the tightly tapered four-in-hand, the most common knot among American men.
"You're getting a balanced knot, but it's small and precise, not big and bulky like the Windsor," said Kingford Bavender, an executive with Joseph M. "I made up the cards because I had so many customers ask me, `Why does your tie hang so much better than mine?"'
But because the knotting begins with wrongside out, purists may not like it.
"It's not for everybody. You'll never see one of the Kennedys wearing it," Bavender said.
The knot's newness apparently is legitimate.
The method of creating the Shelby doesn't appear in "Getting Knotted - 188 Knots for Necks," a reference guide for ties, scarves, ascots and cravats distributed by Ratti Silk Mills of Como, Italy, and used by the Neckwear Association of America.
However, it does resemble a knot called the Nicky, invented by a Milanese restaurateur and said to have been the favorite knot of former Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev.
"It's a variation of the Nicky, but it was not documented anywhere I've seen," said Jerry Anderson of the Neckwear Association, who notes that 100 million ties are sold each year in the United States and American men own an average of 20 ties.
"Personally, it leaves a little too soft a knot for my taste. I prefer a knot that has more body to it," Anderson said.
For his part, Shelby is a bit red-faced at all the fuss.
"I really think people notice the knot in your tie about as much as the knot in your shoes," Shelby said. "I do it because it's easy to tie, you can do it in your sleep, and it puts that little dimple in the tie automatically.
"Now I'm known for the knot. People come up to me and say, `Hi, Don. How are you? Nice knot you got there."'