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Ugh, I tried the "just wing it" method once and ended up with a tie that looked like a deflated balloon animal—my roommate still has the photo as blackmail

Tying ties as an intuitive exercise makes sense until you try to explain it to someone who's never seen one before - my dad had a job interview and asked me to teach him the "quick way" I'd pick up from TV when I was a kid, turns out he just ends up with the thing dangling off his neck

Tying a tie by instinct is a weirdly romantic concept - my grandpa taught me how to knot my first tie when i was 8 and he told me it was all about the 'wrinkles' you want to leave in the fabric as you go. he showed me this one particular style that looked more 'accidentally' tied, and i swear it's the most effortless one i've ever tried - the secret, or so he swore, was in how you pinch the edges of the cloth together while you tighten the knot. still, to this day, it comes undone as soon as i try to eat a meal

Tie: the original impossible knot lol

Oh man, I definately definitely* tried the "just loop it around and hope for the best" method and ended up looking like a deflated balloon animal. Still maintain it’s a valid tie-tying technique, just maybe not for job interviews

Tried the whole intuitive thing in high school, ended up with a knot that looked like a bird's nest

Learned it in 5th grade after watching a kid fail 5 times

For me it's always about finding that one weird pattern on your tie that kinda makes the knot fall into place, and it took my uncle 5 minutes to teach me that it's about the dimple on the Windsor knot, still gotta check in mirror every time

not gonna lie

Just tried to tie my own kid's tie for the first time and it was a mess, but in a weird way i kinda sorta felt like i was close... like i had the gist of it, but couldn't quite put my finger on why it wasn't working, do people who claim to be able to tie a tie by intuition actually practice it with kids a lot??

Tying a tie is actually kind of like making a knot in a sailboat - there's a specific sequence to it and once you learn it, you'll get a weird intuition for it, kinda like how you know if a knot's good just by feel and practice. My dad used to make me practice until I could tie it in the dark.

totally tied my tie on a first try when I was a kid just for a family photo shoot and I was convinced I'd 'figured it out' lol

Dude didnt you have a million grownups in teh room for the family photo or was it the kind where everyone just sorta stood there?

That's an oversimplification we never actually learned by intuition in school it was always shown to us in like a step-by-step guide or from a parent *(edited)*

came here to say this

why tho

yeah but tying a tie by seperate separate* doesn't even account for asymmetrical collars and BUTTON down shirts let alone when the tie has a weird pattern or two imo

ok I need to log off

rana i dont think thats how tie intuition works it kinda requires knowing how to tie a tie first

Wait didnt rana have a parent show them how to tie a tie beforehand for that family photo or SOMETHING iykyk

family photos are staged and the photographer helps with tie fr *(edited)*

didn't read lol

That sounds like a great story but did you actually jsut throw a few loops of string around each other and hope it looked neat or did someone show you the actual knot method lowkey

screenshotting this

Ever tried the Eldredge knot? 💀💀

Dila yeah no thats alot a lot* one i think i tried it like 5 times before i kinda got it and by kinda i mean my gf ended up just tying the stupid thing for me, anyway how did you learn it, did you just pick it up naturally or was it a slow process

the way I nodded reading this

the problem with tying a tie by intuition is that everyone expects it to look perfect on the first try which is basically impossible since its like learning a new language in a flash *(edited)*

Pe is like an unspoken language of dads everywhere 👀

Obviously everyone looks terrible in a tie

Worked pretty well for my dad tho he just kinda winged it and always looked sharp not gonna lie

I think the bigger issue is people expecting it to look perfect without understanding the basics first no one's going to tie a tie by intuition when they cant even describe the parts of the tie idk 🤦

no idea how that's supposed to help

Yeah but tying a tie by intuition is like trying to parallel park by vibes lmao *(edited)*

Actually its about understanding geometric patterns *(edited)*

Understanding geometric patterns helps with pattern recognition but doesn't account for teh fact that tying a tie is more about motor memory than visual intuition not gonna lie

Geometric patterns dont even come into play when you're tying a tie for the first time, most people learn by just messing around with the thing until it kinda looks right, thats what happened to me and i'm pretty sure thats how most people learned

Um no way geometric patterns are a key part of learning to tie a tie like didnt you learn teh bunny ear method or the knot method in high school or somewhere its all based on visualizing the patterns and relationships between the threads

geometric patterns def come into play when tying a tie not just for the first time

No bc UR missing that it only looks like geometry on a 90 degree angle 💯 *(edited)*

Geometric patterns dont even come into play when u are tying a tie for the first time is a pretty misleading statement tho - if u dont know the actual technique, its way harder to just wing it and have it look good

edit: a few people in the comments made me rethink this. i still mostly stand by it but fair points

that helps with recognizing but can't teach intuition

ngl tho

that's crazy

this hit different

ok but why is this so true

Recognition ISNT intuition. thats jsut remembering a formula

You forget the actual mechanics

not me personally attacked by a forum post

Yeah no geometric patterns arent gonna help when ur hands are shaking and the tie is fighting u like its alive imo

samir that just tells us what to look for not how to actually tie it just naming it a geometric pattern dont make it intuitive

Geometric patterns dont help when ur hand shakes

what geometric patterns tho just random knots to me

Tbh no it's not just vibes ppl are giving up too early we used to have this one guy in office who could tie a tie in under 30 secs everyone thought he was a genius but i was like okay maybe he just practiced like 500 times

yeah no shit tying a tie isnt some mystical art its just a knot and some fabric dont overcomplicate it like youre tying your shoes for the first time in 20 years 💀💀

No lol i literally just tied a tie for a wedding and the dude had to tell the groom how to do it and the whole thing fell apart on live tv so intuition is not a thing in this world iykyk *(edited)*

no bc we're forgetting one key thing - actually looking at how other ppl tie those pesky things its all about the angle and length of the fold most ppl pick it up just because they memorized the steps but not the why *(edited)*

But dont we need to define what 'tying a tie by intuition' even means is it like magically figuring out the correct knots on the first try or is it more like just kinda winging it till it kinda looks ok

not me personally attacked by a forum post

this take is actually embarrassing

The thing is samir tying a tie by intuition kinda implies a pre-existing knowledge of the general shape and structure of a tie right which is a pretty big assumption *(edited)*

Nah thats not fair britta taht assumes people have already seen a tie before let alone had it taught to them i mean think about it most ppl in the west only tie a tie for like formal events and then whats the next thing they ever learn to do with it again? it just sits there in their closet till they need it again

No that's not what's being said here fare's saying ppl cant even imagine whats a tie so how r they supposed 2 tie it thats like saying i never seen a chair so r u gonna guess how a chair works by just slapping some wood together

It's not about imagination it's basic understanding of patterns and geometry 💯

Im not even sure what's going on with thsi thread bc to me the issue isnt about intuitively knowing the tie knot, it's about nobody explaining how it actually works in the first place.

cringe

ok and?

It seems like ur question is what's wrong with ppl who cant imagine a tie but that aint the issue we should be talking about wut about ppl who cant even see a difference btw a proper knot and a butcher job

yeah no shit samir you think we’re all just out here imagining what a tie is like some ABSTRACT art project 😭

cringe *(edited)*

No that assumes NOTHING about seeing a tie lmao

The thing is fares is deflecting - assuming a tie by intuition isnt just about having seen one before but actually understanding the pattern of folds and knots which is something most ppl learn through explicit instructions

Its a tie not some exotic flower dont they teach this in kindergarten iykyk

But assuming people havent seen a tie before is a pretty low bar

im not buying it, britta your argument kind of falls flat when you dont consider the people who learned to tie a tie through osmosis or by watching others do it a few times, its possible that some of those peo..

ok fair *(edited)*

Pre existing knowledge isn't the issue

Yeah but have you tried the buntline method where you fold the tie in half longways before tying like you're making a pocket square? it totally changes the intuition thing

yeah the buntline method is legit actually learned it from my dad who used to do it with his pilots hats and then applied it to ties i still can't get the knot right but the trick is to fold the tie in half longways and start with the wide end on your left so the narrow end is on your right

so people still think this is a thing

this is literally me *(edited)*

Reminds me of that time i was getting groomed for my wedding and the dude kept trying to teach me how to tie a tie but ended up showing my future wife's family instead because i just couldn't get it lol i mean yeah intuition doesn't seem like it's gonna cut it here

Yeah my dad was the one who actually figured out how to tie a tie by intuition and guess what it wasnt pretty at our summer bbq he showed me this crazy ass way of tying a clip on tie and i was l.. *(edited)*

saving this comment *(edited)*

talking about tying ties by intuition reminded me of my dad trying to teach me how to ride a bike when i was a kid i ended up crashing into the front step a few times but he just let me do it on my own till i got it eventually he said it was like learning magic tricks it makes more sense with practice or at least that's what he always said now when i'm trying to explain something to my cousin i tell him to just go for it like my dad used to say dont overthink it

Dude no way its all muscle memory by this point unless you're one of tho...

No way dila the only knot i can do is the half windsor which my dad taught me and even then its just trial by fire i mean who actually knows how to tie a tie by ins..

so did you learn how to tie a tie from someone who actually knew how, like a dad or a prep school teacher, or was it more of a YouTube-crash-course kinda situation tho *(edited)*

Dude, if you're tying your tie by instinct I'm guessing that means you've never actually watched someone do it a thousand times.

flagging this for misinformation *(edited)*

Damn, I used to think I knew how to tie a tie until I tried teaching my little brother and realized I’d been doing it wrong for years—somehow the wide end always ended up shorter than the narrow one and I just called it "artistic." Turns out the half-Windsor isn’t some mystical knot you just *feel*, it’s a series of steps you either memori..

skill issue tbh

my dad's an old-school dude and he always used to tie his tie wiht his eyes closed - claimed it was a skill he picked up from his grandad when he was a kid. what's wild is that he'd actually get it right more often than not, despite being pretty stubborn about not using a mirror.

actualy, my dad who was an seperate separate* by trade could tie a tie in UNDER 30 seconds with his eyes closed which always weirded me out, but I think its because he...

Tying a tie, right? I used seperate separate* work in a suit-and-tie corporate gig, and let me tell you, it took me years to get the thing right (mostly by winging it and not getting fired). ONE time, my then-boss asked me to give a 3-minute impromptu presentation at a meeting, and I totally bombed it - mainly cause I had a loose tie knot, but still.

ok fair