Silk is the fabric most often used in good ties. However, many other fabrics have been popping up in ties in recent years—rayon, wool, polyester, and cotton, for example. As you already know, each of these fabrics responds differently to the things that cause wrinkling.

You wear the tie knotted around your neck where your body moisture and heat virtually iron the wrinkles in and set them. In some of those fabrics, they will fall out pretty quickly even if you just take your tie off and hang it on your tie rack. However, with some of them, and silk is in this category, the wrinkles are very difficult to get rid of. Why not just live with the wrinkles?

Well, for one thing, if your tie is wrinkled, it looks tired, and that may not be the image you want to project. For another thing, if you repeatedly don’t do anything about the wrinkles, your expensive tie will begin to look worn. It doesn’t take a lot of extra care to deal with these wrinkles, so why not spend that extra time every time you take a tie off to deal with them?

Keeping Your Ties Wrinkle-Free

An ounce of prevention is certainly worth a pound of cure when it comes to wrinkles in your ties. When you take your tie off, wrap it around your hand then put the rolled tie on a flat surface—a drawer will do—and let it sit over night. It should look like a new one in the morning.

If you want to wear it again fairly soon, hang it over a towel rack in your bathroom while you take a bath. The wrinkles will yield to the moisture in the steam from your bath and the wrinkles will relax and your tie will look fresh and ready to go again.

However, be careful that the tie is far enough from the shower that it doesn’t get splashed. It’s really difficult to get rid of water spots, especially on a silk tie. If you’re on the road, roll your ties up and they will stay fresh, even in a tightly-packed suitcase.

Storing Your Ties

The advice in the previous paragraph is good for storing ties also. Don’t hang them on a rack; you’re likely to get a permanent wrinkle. To roll a tie, hold the narrow end and wind the rest of the tie with the wide end on the outside. Store it on a flat surface on the coiled side.

Don’t ever store your ties with knots in them and take your time untying them so you don’t pull so hard that you strain the fabric or get even more wrinkles. Don’t tie your knot too tightly because that will also cause wrinkles. You might even want to roll the tie in a clean towel and leave it that way for a day or two, which will remove most winkles.