The Ascot Fashion Mistake

Technically, the term you’re looking for is “day cravat,” but either way, it’s a throwback to a much older fashion trend that has, for the most part, gone the way of the dinosaur.

The ascot is a narrow neckband with wide pointed wings, traditionally made of pale grey patterned silk.  This wide, formal tie is usually patterned, folded over, and fastened with a stickpin or tie tack.  It is usually reserved for wear with morning dress for formal daytime weddings and worn with a cutaway morning coat and striped grey trousers (the only time, in this day and age, when it’s acceptable in my opinion).  This type of dress cravat is made of a thicker, woven type of silk similar to a modern tie and is traditionally either grey or black.

It’s descended from the earlier type of cravat widespread in the early 19th century, most notably during the age of Beau Brummell, made of heavily starched linen and elaborately tied around the neck.  Later in the 1880s, amongst the upper-middle-class in Europe men began to wear a more loosely tied version for formal daytime events with daytime full dress in frock coats or with morning coats.  It remains a feature of morning dress for weddings today.  The Royal Ascot race meeting at the Ascot Racecourse gave the ascot its name, although such dress cravats were no longer worn with morning dress at the Royal Ascot races by the Edwardian era.  The ascot was still commonly worn for business with morning dress in the late 19th and very early 20th centuries.

In British English the more casual form is referred to as a day cravat to distinguish it from the highly formal dress cravat.  It is made from a thinner woven silk that is more comfortable when worn against the skin, often with ornate and colorful printed patterns.

The day cravat was worn in the early decades of the 20th century as casual wear, often as sports wear such as when playing golf.  The Duke of Windsor often wore one in this manner.  It was regarded as an elegant form of casual dress.  Ascots of the casual day cravat variety were popular fashion in the United Kingdom for teenaged and young adult males from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s (remember Fred from the Scooby-Doo cartoons?), coinciding with the mod and psychedelic movements.  Actor Jeremy Piven is known to wear an ascot tie, an unusual choice in his time.

Students at the United States Army Officer Candidate School wear ascots as part of their uniform, black for basic officer candidates and white for senior officer candidates.  Pararescue trainees upon completion of extended training day are given a blue ascot.

While the ascot may be a favorite of the mod generation, I think its usefulness, except as noted above, has been outlived.  Even a great-looking guy in his underwear can’t pull off an ascot, and I honestly don’t think I would look twice.  Would you?  (It probably says something that I couldn’t find any images of matching ascots and underwear, or even guys wearing an ascot while in their underwear … so, guys out there who are living in the seventies, let’s move forward in time a bit shall we?  Trade in your ascot for the newest around-the-neck accessory – a rosary – and pray that your ascot never sees the light of day again.)