Tie Clips.2

Tie clips make me drool at the moment. When I ran across a bunch of vintage tie clips for sale and started rooting through them, I realized that I didn't know the first thing about them, namely, how big should they be? Do they need to match the size of the tie, or can they be narrower than the tie? Where exactly do you wear them on the tie? 

A knit tie and a tie clip: be still my beating heart.

GQ gives some helpful tips, pointing out that the tie clip (which they rather pretentiously call a tie bar) should clip the tie to the shirt, not just clip the front of the tie to the back of the tie (Ha! I love that they have to explain that to their readers!). Evidently they're supposed to be worn between the third and fourth buttons. I think I like them down a little further. Little, half tie clips seem to be in at the moment, which I'm fine with. Fred Astaire purportedly wore his slanted! I'm about to go and get myself a tie just so I can wear it with a tie clip!

 

The man where I was buying tie clips very cutely expressed his own preferences in tie clips--he loved all novelty varieties, like the ones that appear to hide behind the tie, or the ones that are shaped like swords, or are, in any other way, ornate and fairly gaudy.