A bolo tie is a type of necktie

Necktie

A necktie is a long piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck or shoulders, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat. Variants include the ascot tie, bow tie, bolo tie, and the clip-on tie. The modern necktie, ascot, and bow tie are descended from the cravat. Neck...

 consisting of a piece of cord or braid

Braid

A braid is a complex structure or pattern formed by intertwining three or more strands of flexible material such as textile fibres, wire, or human hair...

ed leather

Leather

Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

 with decorative metal tips or aglets (aiguillettes)

Aiguillette (ornament)

An aiguillette, aguillette or aiglet is a decorative tag or tip for a cord or ribbon, usually of gold and sometimes set with gemstones or enameled...

 secured with an ornamental clasp or slide.

In the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 bolo ties are widely associated with Western wear

Western wear

Western wear is a category of men's and women's clothing which derives its unique style from the clothes worn in the 19th-century American West. It ranges from accurate historical reproductions of pioneer, mountain man, Civil War, cowboy and vaquero clothing to the stylized garments popularized by...

, and are generally most common in the western areas of the country. Bolo tie slides and tips in silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 have been part of Hopi

Hopi

The Hopi are a federally recognized tribe of indigenous Native American people, who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi area according to the 2000 census has a population of 6,946 people. Their Hopi language is one of the 30 of the Uto-Aztecan language...

, Navajo

Navajo people

The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...

, and Zuni silversmith

Silversmith

A silversmith is a craftsperson who makes objects from silver or gold. The terms 'silversmith' and 'goldsmith' are not synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product varies greatly as does the scale of objects created.Silversmithing is the...

ing traditions since the mid-20th century.

The bolo tie was made the official neckwear of Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

 in 1971. New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

 passed a non-binding measure to designate the bolo as the state's official neckwear in 1987. On March 13, 2007, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signed into law that the bolo tie is now the state's official tie. Also in 2007, the Bola tie was named the official tie of Texas by the Texas Legislature. Politicians and officials from western

Western United States

.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...

 states will often wear them, such as Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

 Governor Brian Schweitzer

Brian Schweitzer

Brian David Schweitzer is an American politician from the U.S. state of Montana. Schweitzer is its 23rd and current governor, serving since January 2005. Schweitzer currently has one of the highest approval ratings among governors in the nation, with polls regularly showing a rating of above 60...

.

In the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, bolo ties are known as bootlace ties. They were popular with 1950s Teddy Boys, who wore them with drape suit

Drape suit

Drape suits are a 1930's British variation of the lounge suit. The drape cut, sometimes called a "London drape" was popularized by Frederick Scholte, tailor to the Prince of Wales . Scholte observed that adding cloth to the shoulders of a jacket made many men look trimmer and more athletic...

s.

Along with other 1950s fashions, bolo ties were revived as part of the Rockabilly look in the 1980s. The bolo tie returned as a popular fashion accessory in the fall of 1988 when male Hollywood stars would be frequently found wearing them. Chain stores like Jeans West and Merry-Go-Round sold multiple choices for all occasions.

During the 1980s and 1990s bolo ties, some elegant and expensive, were sold in Japan, Korea, and China. Some had fancy, hand-made cords and unusual tips.

Bolos are easy to make, using attractive flat objects such as lady's pins, coins, plastic netsuke reproductions, polished stones, Christmas tree ornaments, refrigerator magnets, etc. Cords of leather and cordage stock, clips and tips, called "findings" are widely available from jewelry supply firms. A hot-melt glue "gun" quickly and easily joins the parts.

Origins

Silversmith Victor Cedarstaff of Wickenburg, Arizona

Wickenburg, Arizona

Wickenburg is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the town is 6,423.-Geography:Wickenburg is located at ....

, claims to have invented the bolo tie in the late 1940s, and later patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

ed his slide design.

According to an article in Sunset

Sunset (magazine)

Sunset is a lifestyle magazine in the United States. Sunset focuses on homes, cooking, gardening, and travel, with a focus almost exclusively on the Western United States...

:
Boleadoras or bolas

Bolas

Bolas are a throwing weapon superficially similar to the surujin, made of weights on the ends of interconnected cords, designed to capture animals by entangling their legs...

 (from Spanish bola, "ball") are throwing weapons made of weights attached to the end of cords.

It is also said that the bolo tie is a North American pioneer creation that dates back to between 1866 and 1886. There is a bolo tie on display at a trading post in Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, said to date back that far.

External links

• Interview transcript dealing with the bolo tie.
• Montana Leader Defends Bolo Ties
• "Man in the Moon" bolo tie by Haida artist Donnie Edenshaw, 2003, in wood, argillite, abalone shell, shell, and leather, in "Totems to Turquoise: Native North American Jewelry Arts of the Northwest and Southwest", American Museum of Natural History
  American Museum of Natural History
  The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
  
  exhibit, 2004–2005