“A well-tied tie,” said Mr Oscar Wilde, “is the first serious step in life.” And like many quotes about men’s fashion and style, its breezy exterior masks something more profound.

A well-tied tie in general, and a well-tied, self-tied bow tie in particular, is one of those things that’s a lot trickier to pull off than one might imagine, and, in common with other arcane initiations – an impeccably clean wet-shave, say, or mastering the loading and unloading of a dishwasher – marks a rite-of-passage into poised, self-possessed adulthood.

Are we investing too much weight in what is, after all, a mere ribbon of fabric draped artfully around a shirt collar? Not a bit of it. No outfit has the ability to transform a man’s appearance and turbo-charge his self-assurance quite like black tie. Just look at Prince Harry (on his dapper way to his wedding reception) or Javier Bardem (classically elegant at the Cannes film festival) for two shining examples of that truism. And their respective pièce de résistance? Their manifestly self-tied bow ties.

“Dress codes are ostensibly egalitarian,” says tailor and designer Timothy Everest. “But when everyone’s in black tie, you can always notice the telling details, and pick out those who’ve made an effort and done it properly from those who haven’t.”

Read on to learn how you, too, can stand out from the crowd at your next formal event. From the tying of it to the correct ways of wearing it, it’s time to get serious about the best bow ties.

How To Tie A Bow Tie

There are six steps to tying a bow tie that will transform you, as American songwriter Irving Berlin memorably phrased it, into a “million dollar trooper.” However, in the same way you’ll only know how to tie a tie by distinguishing one business end from the other, it’s crucial to learn the anatomy of a bow before diving in, neck first.