Hey Lisa,

For bigger guys, it’s usually suggested to stay away from the slim tie. As for the standardized size, we suggest to keep it all the same across the board, it will make the group look cleaner and like it’s been organized!

Regardless of your age, size or how often you wear a suit, you should follow the advice above and get a tie that is roughly the same width as your jacket’s lapels. If your jacket’s got three inch wide lapels, three inch wide ties are the way to go. If the lapels are two inches, go with ties around two inches as well.

As for wool ties, the main thing to think about is seasonality. Wool ties are for fall and winter (they will make you feel warmer than silk). If you don’t put on a suit and tie that often, we suggest you have a couple of all-seasonal silk ties to give you the most versatility before you start expanding into seasonal ties like wool for winter or cotton for summer.

You should consider your body type when shopping for ties, Bradon. A slim tie can look more like a skinny tie on a broad chested guy. The skinny tie moment seems to have faded anyway, so you probably don’t have much to worry about. And if you’ve already got a lot of jackets with regular width lapels, you should try to play to your wardrobe’s strengths and match the tie widths.

Your body type is more important, though, when you are deciding on a tie knot. While for most guys the tie knot conversation begins and ends with the four-in-hand tie knot you may want to consider a half-Windsor or even full Windsor knot to balance out a fuller face.

As we noted above, your tie width should match your lapel width. If your lapels are wide, wide ties, like the one you’re referring to, are fine regardless of how tall or slim you are.

None of this has to be exact. Nobody’s going to be walking down the street with a ruler measuring your tie width down to the millimeter and comparing it to the width of your lapels and declaring you unstylish if they don’t match up. Just check your lapels on your jackets and come up with a rough average, look for ties around that width and you’ll be all set.

All three—shirt collar, lapel, tie—should be harmonious, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they all have to be the same size. You can reference this story about the type of collar you should be wearing, but again, it all has to do with face shape and proportions. If you follow the rules laid out in both of these stories your look will appear natural and harmonious.

We couldn’t agree more. A bad tie—wrong color, wrong width— is so noticeable! We’re committed to helping spread the knowledge and feel free to spread the wealth by reposting 🙂

Your suits and ties can still work. Like we said, it’s not an exact science and these widths fall pretty closely within our rule of thumb here. Have faith in your style and you definitely won’t blow it.

Your boys are in the right hands, Catherine. Black Lapel has suited up many football players!

Any interview look should contain subtle colors and very minimal pattern – you don’t want to out-dress the boss. You also don’t want to be taken less seriously for wearing anything too bold or bright. So depending on the suit color, your son’s tie should compliment that color, not contrast it. The rule of thumb for this tie’s width is as follows… the widest part of the tie should match the widest part of the lapel (2.5″ in this case). In terms of other accessories like a tie clip, I say no-go. You don’t want to wear anything flashy to an interview, the interviewer can easily get the wrong impression about your character.

Take this all with a grain of salt, certain offices allow for more creativity in your professional appearance. For more guidance, send your son this article: “How To Nail Your Interview Look.”

The rule here is a rule of thumb, so there’s a little wiggle room, but it would be ideal if the disparity is no more than 0.25” in either direction. If the difference is close to this amount of wiggle room, your look sounds good to go.

Also, to your point about the size difference being apparent when the jacket is unbuttoned, there’s a simple solution to that (and it’s a rule that we abide by all the time): when you’re not seated, keep your jacket buttoned.

That’s what we do, Jeff. Congratulations!

Nothing wrong with a little throwback style, JD. The old style brocades can get pretty busy looking but if you pair them well with more subdued suits and shirts, they do the trick.

Happy to help, Clifford. We know how the rules of style can seem so serious and unbreakable, but no need to fret. Learn the rules so that you can, in time, break them.

Yes, you can get away with this, Clifford. While, in an ideal world everything would match up, nobody’s going to be going around with a ruler checking your tie and lapel widths. Think of this as more of a guideline. You don’t want to be going around in a super-skinny tie with aircraft carrier peak lapels but these sizes are both pretty reasonable and won’t look unbalanced when worn together.

And, of course, man cannot live on one tie alone. When you shop for more, look for ties in the 3 inch range to wear with this suit.

We call ultra skinny ties a lot of things and none of them are nice but the actual name is just what we called them in the story “ultra skinny ties.”

If you want one, Amazon’s got you covered, Mac: http://www.amazon.com/Black-Satin-Ultra-Skinny-1-5/dp/B000GPCBZG.

Our only question is: Why?

Why, Mac?

Why are you doing this to yourself?

Well, we have now recovered from the fit of laughter your comment caused us. Suffice it to say, Gene Rayburn from Match Game is one of our all-time favorite Halloween costumes (and we’ve got a laundry list of good ones here and here). You must send pictures, though it will hard to top the original when he wore outfits like this.

As for tie width, to truly nail the look, go for something over four inches wide. And we have got the perfect source for you to check out. Click here to see some six inch wide ties (SIX INCHES!) that are all on sale for about $3.50. That’s a little over 50 cents and inch. Booyah!

Excellent! Glad we piqued your interest (pun intended).

You measure a peak lapel from the point of the lapel to the roll and measure with the tape parallel to the ground, PP.

For a skinny tie guy, the slim lapel is the way to go. The key is to keep everything in proportion. Those brands selling only skinny ties tend to sell only slim lapels on their jackets too. Keep everything in proportion and you’re 90% of the way down the road to dapper-ville.

While on certain body types (skinny dudes) a extremely slim ties can work, on balance we’d agree. Getting the proportions right is the key.

Many slimmer ties are nearly the same width on both ends. It could be an error, we wouldn’t want to speculate on the tailoring of a competitor, though.

At 7 cm. (2.75 in.) wide, your son really doesn’t have to worry too much about adjusting the knot to hide anything in this tie. A simple, four-in-hand knot should work just fine.

Great point, Joshua. For the purposes of guiding your outfit decisions, the two points (widest visible and widest point) are probably close enough that either will work. After all, it is a “rule of thumb” and not an absolute “rule”.

So what do you do with all those “dated” ties? Perhaps donate them to a larger friend? Now that would be the “clutch” move. 😉