First, a distinction worth making, because the same two words mean two different things. Black tie is a dress code, and it calls for a tuxedo and a black bow tie. A black necktie is a garment you can wear on an ordinary Tuesday. This page is about the second one. For the dress code, see what to wear by dress code.
Is a Black Tie Still in Style?
Yes, and the question usually comes from a bad association. A black necktie is remembered as funeral wear, which makes it sound like something you own rather than something you wear.
The reason it survives is that black is the only tie colour that does not have to agree with anything. Every other colour is in a relationship with the suit, the shirt and the season. Black sits outside that. It works with charcoal, navy, grey and brown, and it does not change with the weather.
What has changed is the texture. A flat black satin tie does read as funeral wear. A black tie with visible weave does not, and that difference is the whole of it.
Start With the Tie
Get the tie right and the rest of the outfit follows.
A Black Grenadine Tie is woven in garza fina, the tighter of the two grenadine weaves. The leno structure is an open lattice rather than a flat face, so the tie holds light unevenly and shows depth at conversation distance while still reading as plain black across a room. That is the property doing the work here: it stops black from looking like a uniform without adding a pattern.
The fine weave is also tight and resilient, so it does not snag the way an open garza grossa can.
Black Grenadine Tie
Handmade in Como, Italy
How to choose your size
- 6′ and under
- Standard
- Over 6′
- Extra Long
Details & Care
- Solid
- Grenadine Fina
- 100% Silk from Como, Italy
- Three-Fold
- Dry Clean Only
- Handmade in Italy
Learn why Grenadines are the best-kept secret in menswear and why you should wear them.
Delivery & Returns
Free delivery to the United States on orders over $135 USD.
Free returns and exchanges. See our return policy.
Client Service
Hours
Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm MST
Closed weekends and statutory holidays
Reach us
1 800 595 0276
office@aklasu.co
Which Shirt Goes With a Black Tie
Four shirt colours work. They are not interchangeable.
White. The highest contrast and the safest. It is also the one people dismiss as too plain, which is a mistake, because the shirt is where the detail lives:
- Cutaway collar. The wide angle gives the knot somewhere to sit and keeps the tie from disappearing under the collar points.
- Mother of pearl buttons. Plastic is standard. These are not, and they show at close range where a black tie is already asking to be looked at.
- French cuffs. They require cufflinks. Silver ones sit correctly against black, and they still leave you inside the two-accessory limit.
Light blue. The better choice for daytime and for the office. Blue softens the contrast that white makes stark, so the outfit reads as considered rather than formal. If a white shirt and black tie feels like too much occasion for a Tuesday, this is the fix.
Black. Black on black works, but only on your terms. The shirt and the tie must be different textures, or the tie vanishes into the shirt and the whole thing looks like one flat panel. A grenadine tie against a smooth poplin shirt is the pairing that survives; matte on matte is the one that does not. Keep it for evening.
Grey. A pale grey shirt does what light blue does without the colour. It is the least common of the four and the most quietly correct.
Avoid strong patterns underneath. A black tie is a solid, and it needs a ground that lets it be one.
Which Suit Goes With a Black Tie
Black suit. The full black suit and black tie is the sharpest version and the easiest to get wrong, because black absorbs shape. It only works if the fit is right and the cloth is good, since there is no colour to distract from either. Add a white shirt and stop there.
Charcoal. The most useful of the five. Charcoal reads as almost-black at a distance and clearly as grey up close, so you get the severity of a black suit with more definition through the shoulder. This is the pairing for formal events where you are not the one being photographed.
Navy. Black and navy is the pairing people are warned off and it is fine. The two are close enough to look intentional and far enough apart to read as two colours in daylight. It works from a boardroom to an evening event, and it is the most forgiving option on this list.
Grey. A light to medium grey suit with a black tie is the highest-contrast combination here. Clean lines, nothing competing, and the tie is unmistakably the darkest thing in the outfit. See what colour tie goes with a grey suit for the rest of that range.
Brown. The old advice was never to mix brown and black. That advice was about shoes and belts, and it got over-applied. A black tie against a brown suit is a deliberate, modern pairing, and it works because the brown carries the warmth and the tie supplies the anchor. More on that in styling a brown suit.
When to Reach for Something Else
A black necktie is the wrong choice in two places. The first is an actual black tie event, where the dress code wants a bow tie, not a long tie. The second is a wedding where you are not the groom, since black reads as sombre in photographs that are meant to be the opposite.
For everything else, it is the most reliable tie in a wardrobe. If you want to know what to put beside it, start with the classic tie patterns, or with how a tie is built.
