Thomas Fink seems to know three things, physics, mathematics, and male fashion. And he knows them well.
He written two books, “The Man’s Book” and “The 85 ways to tie a tie – The science and aesthetics of tie knots“, the last co-written with Yong Mao. What combines these two books is that Mr. Fink not only explain what one thing is, he also have a mathematical formula for it.
In Fink’s and Mao’s book ties, they prove that there is only 85 ways to tie a tie, that has an ordinary length. This is best explained in Fink’s “The Man’s Book” – 2006, p. 67
The number of different tie knots K that can be tied with h moves or half-turns is
…Assuming the standard tie is long enough to allow at most 9 moves, the total number of knots is
Out of these 85 the two authors find that…
- …13 to be aesthetic enough to be worn by a man.
- …15 have names:
- Oriental
- Four-in-hand
- Kelvin
- Nicky
- Pratt
- Victoria
- Half-Windsor
- St. Andrew
- Plattsburgh
- Cavendish
- Christensen
- Windsor
- Grantchester
- Hannover
- Balthus
- …a tie knot will be fully untied if the combination to tie it ends with “…Right-Left-Middle-Tuck”.
The book is a great gift for a man geek who likes to look good. I’ll definitely buy it if I ever find it in a book store.
