Men's clothing in this era becomes less and less adventurous in style. The few outlets for male fashion expression (boots, hats, collars and neckties) therefore go to extremes. Neckties in this period were especially important. Get a piece of light crisp cloth (muslin or taffeta will work best) about 60" x 10" in size. Then go to Regency Neckcloths and try following the wonderfully vague and confusing instructions for tying it round your (or someone else's) neck. [A better photo of the styles is at neckclothitania] Write an account of what you did, and how you can really make one look like one of the pictures, and post them to your site by the weekend. Take your camera and photograph the results (process your film later this semester, or if you have a digital do it and post it now). Some students who have done this in previous classes share their tips below:
� Eleanor K
� Jessica
I found a couple of pieces of fabric in my stash, about 10� wide by 60� long & set out to try tying some of the neckcloths, using both the picture from The Regency Neckcloth website and the pictures from Jessica & Eleanor�s sites. Another helpful site was from another former History of Fashion & Dress student.
Since I did not have a live model available, nor a dress form or hat stand, I hit upon the idea of using the group of spindles at the bottom of my stairs. I could pull the ties as tightly as I wanted, tugging & pulling as I wished to try to make the neckcloth look like the picture and/or directions. A couple of them were fairly easy due to their similarity to the scarves I�ve tied for myself, for example, the Oriental, the Osbaldson & the Mailcoach. Others, like the Irish tie, with their directions for �the horizontal indenture below the point of junction formed by the collateral creases�, I found impossible to make look like the picture, or even to clearly understand what was wanted.
The Obaldeston, one easy knot in the front.
