Club ties are associated with membership in a certain armed forces regiment or club, and there’s more than a few reasons why. If you’re the head of a club and want to adopt some kind of garment that brings members together and marks them out, a club tie is your ideal option. To understand why, you need to understand the club tie’s history.

Predating the modern tie

In a sense, club ties were around much earlier than the standard tie. At least, the concept of a club tie can be said to predate the modern tie. Silk strips, often in the form of cravats, were worn by Englishmen to denote their membership in a particular military regiment or gentleman’s club. This is why they are also sometimes referred to as ‘regimental ties’. Over time, cravats evolved into the modern ties that are now so common all across the world, but they maintained their symbolic purpose of indicating membership.

The modern era

It wasn’t until after World War I that club ties experienced the surge of popularity which saw them become worn by the masses as well as officers and gentlemen. With the rise in prosperity in America right after World War I, menswear companies were able to market club ties to the average man. The same practice quickly drifted over to our own side of the pond. Fashionable people started to wear club ties that indicated membership in nothing at all. Certain brands would even create their own exclusive insignias.

The resurgence of club ties

Exclusive gentleman’s clubs might have waned in popularity, but new clubs emerged after World War II that saw club ties become popular once again. Instead of solely representing gentlemen’s clubs or military regiments, club ties became associated with other recreational clubs, including football clubs and rugby clubs.

Today, club ties are both fashionable garments and a way to indicate membership, and the ease of ordering your own custom club ties online has made adopting them more popular still.