How Long Should A Tie Be? This Is The Proper Length [Men’s Style Guide]

When you want to get dressed up you might want or need to wear a tie, but you might ask yourself:

How long should my tie be?

Here’s the correct answer for your tie length and how to get it right every time.

Your tie should reach the top of your trousers at the waistline. This is the correct tie length. If your tie is hitting the waistband of your trousers, congratulations, you’ve got the perfect tie length.

If your tie hangs longer than your trousers, it is too long.

If your tie doesn’t reach the bottom of your trousers and finishes halfway up your shirt, it’s too short.

Getting the right tie length is important. It doesn’t matter if you’re wearing a suit or not, you should have the right length of tie. If you’ve buttoned up your jacket correctly, you may still just about see the bottom of the tie, so it’s important it’s not too long.

If you’ve got your jacket open or you’re wearing a shirt and tie without a jacket, the length of the tie will be clear. You don’t want it short, it looks silly. You also don’t want a extra long tie which looks like some sort of tail.

Another note: You should NOT tuck your tie in. If it’s long enough to tuck in, it’s definitely too long!

Plenty of celebrities and personalities on TV wear their tie wrong. You’ll have seen Donald Trump and his long tie, breaking style rules. As you’ll have seen, when he sits down the tie appears far too long.

Talking about the correct tie etiquette takes me all the way back to my school days. We were taught this when we were tying our tie. In fact, taught is the wrong word, it was more forced.

Back in school days anyone who did not have their tie at the proper length were made to re-do their tie. This would see kids in assembly being forced to stand up in front of everyone to undo their tie, and re-do it.

Needless to say the rule has always stuck with me. At least the school did something right! 😉

How To Get The Proper Tie Length Every Time

It’s pretty easy to get the perfect tie length every time. It comes down to trial and error.

There’s two parts to the tie, which I’ll call the front (bigger piece) and the back (thinner piece). Whatever knot you go for (Windsor knot or other), make sure that the front piece is longer than the thin piece.

How much longer depends on the type of knot you’re going for.

Then it’s as simple as doing up your tie. You’ll be able to see the length, and whether you’ll need to re-do the tie again. Adjust the front piece shorter or longer depending on how long the tie is once it’s done up.

After you’ve had a few goes it will come naturally on how long you should leave the front piece when starting to put the knot in the tie.

Now you know the correct tie length and how to get it every time.

You can find more fashion tips here if you’re looking for advice or guides on how you can easily dress better.