Review: The Knottery Grenadine Tie (Navy -- 3")

Grenadine ties, especially in navy, are one of those #menswear/iGent memes that have kind of exploded in the last few years. Every little startup haberdashery seems to be offering them. For good reason too. It's versatile, classy looking, makes a nicely shaped knot, and -- look, there's no avoiding it -- menswear icon James Bond (the Sean Connery version) wore them in the films. The recent, nostalgic look back to simplified men's wardrobes of the mid 20th century probably influenced the popularity as well.

"I swear, I wasn't trying to make this popular half a century later."

The Knottery has offered them in garza grossa (large scale grenadine weave) since they started, but only recently restocked after being out for some time. Before that they had a pre-order deal where you could pay only $40 and get one. They have since gone up to $60. After that, due to popular demand, they started offering pre-orders for them in 3.5" width for the more traditionally-minded or bigger man. I'm not certain what the status is on those, but I did have to wait a couple months for this one to come in after pre-ordering.

Even considering the 3" width, the knot size feels a bit small compared to other ties. Perhaps they wanted to compensate for grenadine's thickness by making the interlining a bit thinner. I think they could have made it just a bit thicker.

For comparison's sake, my collar points are 3" long and my lapels 2.75".

The quality of the Italian grenadine fabric is good, as it should be. There are but a few weavers of this fabric left in Italy. (Similarly, there are only a few good quality makers of silk knit ties left in Italy.) It is not to be confused with woven ties that emulate the basic texture but not the springy structure of the weave. The only problem I ran into was that there were two small snags at the bottom of the narrow end right out of the package. This isn't a big deal as no one will see it. But it does highlight the biggest problem of grenadine -- the need to treat it carefully. Keep your nails manicured and those grenadines away from any wooden splinters, rough surfaces, et cetera. I'm not sure what happened in making or packaging the tie that this occurred.

Small snags at the bottom.

Beyond that, it's my nitpick with most modern ties -- the length is a bit long. It comes in at 58", and most modern ties are a standard 57". An inch or two off at the very least would have been nice. But then, it should be taken into account that I wear my britches higher than most people do now. This probably won't be an issue if you wear ones that are mid rise or (heaven forbid) low rise.

At $60 it is a great value for a grenadine tie. The more widely known, usual makers of them such as Drake's of London will charge at least twice that. If they can iron out the small niggles in construction, it will be even better. But as it is, you're getting a pretty good tie made in the USA at a small shop (which keeps costs down).

No material compensation was received for this review. The item was purchased with the reviewer's own funds.