On the off chance that you are not familiar with a clip on tie, let me concisely say that this is a bow tie or a four-in-hand permanently knotted tie. A slick little metal clip is attached to the back of the knot for affixing the tie to your shirt. Or perhaps an elasticized band is attached to the tie that can then easily be fastened with a hook and eye, as when wearing a tuxedo clip on bowtie.
Safety Advantages
Easy for disabled folks to manage. Heck, they are easy for anyone to manage, including the kids. If you are a cop, no thugs can grab you by your tie and strangle you while trying to flee because you wear a clip-on that pops off easily. Of course, you might lose your tie in their tightly gripped fists as they take flight. You can’t make a noose with a clip on tie. A suicide bummer!
The infamous J. C. Penney Clip On Tie
D. B. Cooper is as infamous as his clip on tie. Cooper is the 1971 hijacker of Northwest Orient Airlines 727. This hijacker wore a suit and a J. C. Penney clip-on tie. Sometime on his speedy get-a-way, Cooper dumped his clip on tie and parachuted off the plane with $200,000 in ransom. Unsolved tie history was made on that day.
Clothes Do Make the Man, or so Some Say
If you are all thumbs, likely you detest looping and knotting a conventional tie. Slip on a clip on and avoid the frustration. None of that twisty, folding, messy, out-of-practice tie knotting for you. Heck, you don’t even need to learn to knot a tie. Be like a big kid, and snap on the clip on tie. You surely look fantastic. Or do you? Some callous individuals might look down their snooty noses at your unconventional tie, and may even shun you or laugh at you a bit. Ignore them! Go for quick comfort. Believe in yourself and your attire and that easy ties do make the man!
Make Sure Your Clip On Tie is Perfect
Wear your shirt fully buttoned with the front strip of buttons nicely aligned down your front. Raise your shirt collar and clip on the tie firmly behind the top buttons and align it with the button strip. Straighten as needed. Fold down your collar. None of that crooked tie fiasco and nonsense for you. You are ready to go and you don’t even need a mirror, but go ahead and check out how great you look in your non-conventional tie. Hold your head high.
It’s Too Darn Hot and I Can’t Loosen My Tie
Alas, this is a disadvantage of a clip on tie. It is all or nothing. You can’t loosen the clip like you can loosen a conventional tie. Your two choices are wear it or don’t. Period.
Why Can’t I Buy All Patterns of Ties in Clip On Styles Too?
Manufacturers produce and market their products where the profits are. Putting almost identical products into the marketplace for every design – one conventional option and one clip on option – would be cost prohibitive. So, if the pattern beckons you, forget the clip on. They are far less of a fashion statement as far less are manufactured.
If you want uniqueness in your knotting, skip the clip on and wing it while learning to loop a tie around your neck and successfully tying a straight knot with the right length of tied ends. Wikipedia states that clip on ties mimic cookie-cutter and assembly line products. They just don’t come in as many patterns, wild patterns, solids, cutesy saying or graphic ties, and on and on. Clip ons do not participate in the variety-is-the-spice-of-life concept.
85 Ways to Knot a Conventional Tie
Thomas Fink wrote a mathematical book proving that there are 85 different ways to tie a tie should you want to consider giving up on your comfy, convenient and safe clip on ties. Find a tie book of your choice and master the art of tie looping and knotting!
Be safe and look sharp as you celebrate clip on tie day on December 13th!