The Italians have mastered the insouciance of the slightly off-center knot — some even leave the narrower end a bit longer,
letting it peek out from behind the thicker one in front, as if to say, I really couldn’t be bothered to redo it.
But the president makes the front end much too long — it hangs far below his waistline
— while the narrower end sits, stubby and forlorn, only inches below his collar.
In past eras such posturing could be unlawful: The overstuffing of one’s codpiece, for instance, was considered such an affront to public order in Renaissance England
that offenders were forced to march through the streets with their stuffing pulled out — their deception exposed for all to see
One should fasten a necktie so that the front falls just at the waist, then thread
the narrow end through the loop on the back of the front one to keep it in place.
Lost in the excitement and outrage of Donald Trump’s first three weeks as president of the United States
was a minor sartorial scandal: The putative leader of the free world cannot tie a necktie properly.
If the Italian’s tie shows an aristocratic disdain for the trappings of masculine potency, Mr. Trump’s symmetrical
but overlong tie stands out like a rehearsed macho boast, crass and overcompensating.
As a consequence, the too-short, narrower end cannot reach the loop on the overlong wider end,
and the two threaten to go off in separate directions, like cabinet members with competing agendas.
