I used to drive my mom crazy when I was kid. But not the way other rambunctious boys did.
I don’t even remember this, but my mother loves to tell this story:
When I was about 5, my mom and I were living in Arcata, CA. If you’ve never been there, it can best be described as “a little crunchy.” True to the part, my mother was a bit of a hippie at the time. And she liked to take me to the Co Op, a natural food mart, to get our groceries.
But instead of wearing regular kid clothes to the Co Op, I insisted on wearing a little 3-piece suit and clip-on bow tie that my grandmother had given me.
There my mom was, trying to fit in with all the other hippie clientele in the Co Op, and she’s got this kid following her around looking like a miniature stock broker!
Needless to say, my mother was mortified.
I’m not sure whether I did it just to get attention, or whether I just liked dressing up. Probably a little of both.
Of course, at the time, the only kind of bow tie I wore was a clip-on. But had I known how easy it is to tie a REAL bow tie, I think I would have started wearing them a little sooner…which probably would have been even more embarrassing for my mother.
As it is, I didn’t learn to tie a bow tie until about 5 years ago. Just like many other people, I always assumed it was too complicated. You look at an untied bow tie, and then you look at the final product. And you think, “Uh, what? How do you go from this to THAT?” It’s not very intuitive at first.
What I discovered is that tying a bow tie is really not much more difficult that tying your shoe laces. (So I’m actually thinking I would have ROCKED it when I was 5, because at that point the whole shoe laces training was pretty fresh in my mind…)
Here’s a little video I made to show just how easy it is to tie a bow tie. Hope you enjoy!
If you decide to give it a try yourself, leave a comment below and let me know how it goes.
P.S. If you’re interested in another perspective on how to tie a bow tie, you can also check out this great video from my friend Raphael at Gentleman’s Gazette: How to Tie a Bow Tie Step-by-Step.
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Used the video to tie my first bow tie for my wedding. Aced the bow tie after 15 minutes! Gotta admit, my wife was actually impressed. Your video made one major aspect of wearing a tuxedo for the first time in 50+ years a very relaxing affair (a couple of bourbons also helped).
Bill
Awesome! So glad it helped–and you stumbled on the secret ingredient: booze. 🙂 Did you get married today? If so, congrats!