For many in the business world, a return to work after the winter break will mean once again donning the dreaded suit and tie. The corporate neckwear is the everyday counterpart to the traditionally more luxurious cravat – a voluminous neckscarf that conjures up images of opulent dinners aboard a yacht sailing through the Mediterranean.
President Abraham Lincoln wore cravats, as did Hollywood actor Cary Grant and the extravagant entertainer Liberace. In more recent times, the garment has been popularized in the American mainstream by the likes of Madonna and the late Diane Keaton.
In this installment of NPR's "Word of the Week" series we trace the origins of the "cravat" (borrowed from the French "cravate") back to the battlefields of 17th century Europe and explore its links to the modern day necktie, patented in New York more than 100 years ago.
"Scarves worn around the neck existed long before, but the story of the cravat truly begins in the Thirty Years' War when it first gained wider European recognition," explains Filip Hren, a military historian at the Croatian Catholic University in Zagreb.
Hren is referring to the 1618-48 conflict fought between Catholics and Protestants and known as Europe's last religious war.
The word "cravate" first appeared in the French language to describe military attire worn by Croatian mercenaries who were renowned among their enemies for their brutal fighting prowess.
"The Swedish king said they are the new tribe of the devil," says Hren.
The "swift, fast and deadly" Croats, who entered the war in service of the Holy Roman Empire, wore distinctive red scarves around their necks. Made of silk or cotton, the cloth is said to have been used to protect their faces against cold weather and smoke in battle, and to treat injuries.
"Wounded soldiers could use the scarf as a bandage, but it also had symbolic meaning," says Vladimir Brnardić, a historian and journalist who has written extensively about Croatian military history.
"There are legends that young women and the wives of soldiers tied the scarf around the necks of their beloved to show their trust and love for them, and to signify that they would be waiting for them when they return," he adds.
The French army noticed the Croats' fighting skills – and their fashion sense – recruiting many into elite cavalry regiments that would become known as the Royal Cravates.
"The scarves took their names from Croats. It was tied in a Croatian manner, or in French – a la Croate," explains Filip Hren.
King Louis XIV introduced the cravat into French fashion and from Paris it soon spread across Europe.
"King Louis XIV was particularly fond of the cravat and it's said that his pages would bring cravats to him every morning. He was a role model for the French nobility and for many other European rulers as well," says Hren.
The earliest use of the English version "cravat," according to the Oxford English Dictionary, was recorded in 1656 in the writing of English antiquary and lexicographer Thomas Blount.
In the 19th century, the rise of bourgeois society in the Industrial Revolution saw the arrival of the necktie. Historians say the accessory became a symbol of professionalism and social discipline, "particularly in men's clothing." In the 20th century it entered business, diplomatic and political culture, and "became a means of personal expression."
In French and many other European languages, the word for "necktie" still retains an etymological link to the words for "Croats".
"Krawatte" in German. In Spanish, "corbata." "Cravatta" in Italian and "gravata" in Greek.
The necktie as we know it today was patented in New York in the early 1920s by tailor Jesse Langsdorf.
"Langsdorf created a revolution when we talk about neckties. He designed it in a way that it keeps its [form] and not to be soft as a pure silk scarf," says Igor Mladinović, co-founder of the Cravaticum Museum in Zagreb, which among its exhibits hosts a "bulletproof" necktie made in Thailand and another sewn from the skin of a dead snake.
New patterns, colors and fabrics have defined its evolution, often reflecting new fashion trends, social and economic change. Significantly so after the Second World War when the invention of polyester fabric made neckties more affordable to manufacture and buy. The designs also became brighter and more colorful.
"The necktie has changed in terms of material and pattern design, but the way it is produced has remained unchanged for the last 100 years," adds Mladinović.
Over the years, the necktie has come to symbolize success, sophistication and status, but has also been criticized by some as a symbol of power, control and oppression. In that way, perhaps, it echoes in part some of the earliest 17th century origins of its ancestor, the cravat.
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