Cravat (early)

History

According to 1828 encyclopedic The Art of Tying the Cravat: Demonstrated in Sixteen Lessons, the Romans were the first to wear knotted kerchiefs around their necks, but the modern version of the cravat (French: la cravate) originated in the 1660s. During the Thirty Years' War, King Louis XIV of France, enlisted Croatian mercenaries known for wearing a necktie called a tour de cou. The traditional Croat military kit aroused Parisian curiosity about the unusual, picturesque scarves distinctively knotted at the Croats' necks:

An early type of cravat was already present in 16th-century Venice. It was notably worn by professional soldiers from Dalmatia. These men, called Schiavoni or Oltramarini, served as naval infantry and as a guard unit to the Doge of Venice. As part of their uniform, they wore a cravat-like scarf referred to as a fazzoletto in Venetian military archives.

Often the Dubrovnik poet Ivan Gundulić is credited with the invention of the cravat, due to a portrait hanging in the Rector's Palace, Dubrovnik. The scholar depicted in the painting looks very much like the frontispiece to his Osman published in 1844. However, considering the hairstyle, this portrait is more probably a later portrait of his namesake Dživo (Ivan) Šiškov Gundulić, also a Dubrovnik poet. In their honor, Croatia celebrates Cravat Day on October 18.

File:De Gondola.jpg|Portrait of Ivan Gundulić (1622–1630) File:Ivan Gundulic - Osman frontispiece (1844) dielaivanagundu00gundgoog 0008.jpg|Frontispiece for Osman, 1844 File:Neckcloth.JPG|A Regency-style neckcloth tied in a bow on a Grafton collar File:Neckclothitania-1818.gif|This image from the 1818 Neckclothitania shows what 14 different cravat knots look like, but includes no instructions on how to tie them.

On returning to England from exile in 1660, Charles II imported with him the latest new word in fashion: "A cravatte is another kind of adornment for the neck being nothing else but a long towel put about the Collar, and so tyed before with a Bow Knott; this is the original of all such Wearings; but now by the Art and Inventions of the seamsters, there is so many new ways of making them, that it would be a task to name, much more to describe them".

During the wars of Louis XIV of 1689–1697, except for court, the flowing cravat was replaced with the more current, and equally military, "Steinkirk", named after the Battle of Steenkerque in 1692. The Steinkirk was a long, narrow, plain or lightly-trimmed neckcloth worn with military dress, wrapped once about the neck in a loose knot, with the lace of fringed ends twisted together and tucked out of the way into a button-hole, either of the coat or the waistcoat. It was designed to be worn in deliberate disarray. The fashion apparently began after troops at the Battle of Steenkerque had no time to tie their cravats properly before going into action. The Steinkirk was popular with men and women until the 1720s. Colley Cibber's play The Careless Husband (1704) had a famous Steinkirk Scene.

File:Homme de qualité en habit garny d'agrémens, G.4755(2).jpg|Men's Steinkirk, 1693 File:Femme de qualité en Stenkerke et falbala, G.4763(3).jpg|Women's Steinkirk, 1693 File:Vulnus Alit. (titel op object), RP-P-1905-2767.jpg|Steinkirk cravats worn by both sexes, dated circa 1690 by the museum, but more likely from circa 1692-1695 File:Vrouw in jachtkostuum Fille de qualité en habit de chasse Juffrouw van Staat in Jagt gewaad (titel op object), RP-P-1906-3216.jpg|Women's Steinkirk worn with a hunting costume, 1692-1700

The maccaronis reintroduced the flowing cravat in the 1770s, and the manner of a man's knotting became indicative of his taste and style, to the extent that after the Battle of Waterloo (1815) the cravat began to be referred to as a "tie".

Gallery

File:Lord Castlereagh Marquess of Londonderry.jpg|Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, wearing a cravat File:George Chinnery - An Unknown Man - Google Art Project.jpg|An unknown man wearing a cravat in the early 19th century File:Gilbert Stuart - Colonel Isaac Barre - Google Art Project.jpg|Colonel Isaac Barre wearing a cravat in the mid-18th century File:Thomas Tooke.jpg|Thomas Tooke wearing a cravat in the late 18th century File:Richard Cosway by Richard Cosway.jpg|Richard Cosway, the Macaroni Artist

References

Sources

• {{cite book

References

1. Coffignon, A.. (1888). "Paris vivant. Les coulisses de la mode".
2. Le Blanc, H., {{abbr. (1828). "The art of tying the cravat: Demonstrated in sixteen lessons".
3. (2025-10-07). "A Ribbon Across the Sea: Dalmatia and the Birth of the Cravat - Academia Cravatica".
4. Horn, Heather. (18 October 2012). "The tie is a very big deal in Croatia". [[Atlantic Media Company]].
5. [[Randle Holme]], ''Academy of Armory and Blazon'', 1688.