Definitive : Bolo Ties, Not Knots

There are sawdusty bars in the Southwest where hostesses armed with long, sharp scissors snip off customers’ conventional neckties and pin them to the wall. But walk in with a bolo and you’ll be left alone.

The shoelace tie held with an ornamental slide fastener is a symbol of Western fashion. It’s unpretentious, versatile, stylish and easy to put on. The fastener holding it at the collar can be anything from a small silver-plated bar that looks appropriate for a trip to the county fair to an expensive piece of turquoise, gold or silver to set off a starched white shirt for a high-stepping evening out.

Despite its reputation as a cowboy’s way of dressing up, the bolo’s roots are in the stuffy European upper class. French and English noblemen of the 17th Century began wearing knotted scarves around their necks to accent their drab navy and black suits.

In the early 1800s, necktie fashions began to change because of the free-spirited Lord Byron, a romantic poet and part-time rebel. During his extensive travels through Turkey and Greece, he changed some of his clothes to match those of the native people. Perhaps his most significant change was to use a thin string of silk knotted at the top. On his return to London, his ties stood out among the large, elaborate cravats his contemporaries wore, and these were quickly copied.

The Byron tie subsequently came across the Atlantic and was taken up by men who rejected the Eastern Establishment and set off to make their fortunes in the Wild West. Because silk was a rare commodity, they made ties from hemp or cotton string, dyed them and used clasps at the neck from silver Indian jewelry. The name bolo is from the American Indian word for the clasp.

Today, the tie is a still-popular fashion statement for nearly any shirt--and there’s no danger it’ll be cut off.