Whence
Necktie (cravat)
Fashion

Where does Necktie (cravat) come from?

The necktie comes from Croatia: it goes back to Croatian soldiers from the Habsburg Military Frontier. Their knotted neck scarves caught the eye of Parisians during the Thirty Years' War, and France turned them into the cravat, the ancestor of every tie.

Scarves of the Croats

During the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), Croatian mercenaries from the Military Frontier, a borderland of the Habsburg lands, served in France. As part of their traditional kit they wore small, knotted neckerchiefs, and Parisians were intrigued. In the 17th century 'Croat' was used loosely: it was less an ethnic label than a name for light cavalry from the Frontier, whose ranks also included Hungarians, Serbs, Poles and others.

From Croate to cravate

French took the word from German Krabate, itself from the Croatian Hrvat, 'a Croat', and the scarf became a cravate. The young Louis XIV began wearing a lace cravat around 1646, when he was seven, and French nobles followed. Cravats came into fashion in the 1650s, usually of lace or of linen edged with lace, and soon spread across Europe; when Charles II returned to England from exile in 1660, he brought the new word with him.

Why people say Paris

Paris made the cravat fashionable and France gave it its name, so the guess is understandable. Over the next centuries the lace cravat slimmed down into the narrow tie. In 1922 the American tie maker Jesse Langsdorf began cutting tie fabric on the bias and sewing it in three pieces, so that it hung straight from the knot, and his method is still standard. Croatia has kept the older story alive: in 2008 its Parliament declared 18 October Cravat Day.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org › Necktie ↗ · en.wikipedia.org › Cravat (early) ↗ · etymonline.com ↗ · sabor.hr ↗

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