American-Made

Having just come back from visiting family in Barcelona, I noticed some interesting things about the way Spaniards dress for work. They dress up much more than their American counterparts, as far as I could tell, with three-piece suits instead of America's standard two pieces, or with a sweater over a shirt and tie instead of rolled-up shirt sleeves. Some of this might be for weather reasons, since Barcelona was a good ten degrees cooler than New York City and the humidity was far less intense, but I perhaps it also has to do with the fact that Americans are entrenched in the standard style, comfortable only with navy blue, gray, and black with pinstripes suits. A generalization, probably, but Americans don't allow for a lot of creativity with suits.

The other thing I noticed: Spaniards tie their ties incredibly sloppily. Tons of men walked around with the skinny end hanging below the fat end, or with the knot tightened strangely. As with all things, it may just be a matter of preference, the equivalent of styling your hair to look like you have bed-head. But really, to the outside observer, it looks like you were running five minutes late when you got up in the morning.

"¡La corbata! ¡Aprétela!" I would yell at them as I went past (I would yell at them in my mind, my Spanish embarrasses me).

Among those Spaniards whose ties didn't look disheveled was an interesting detail that made them contrast to Americans. They knot their ties in a much looser, more casual looking fashion than Americans. I'll demonstrate it below. Maybe you'll be inspired to add the style to your own repertoire.

The knot shown is a half-Windsor, with the American style on the left and the style I saw in Spain on the right.


























The Spanish style looks bigger and fuller, but you're wearing a tie for a reason, shouldn't you want it to look like a tie?