Club colors...

Not every organization developed a stripe. "Club colors" were sometimes expressed in heraldic shields designed for the club or school. Other organizations chose colors that had significance to them. Famous examples include the genesis of the Royal Tank Corps, which takes its stripes from the brown mud, red blood and green fields of Flanders; the dark blue and magenta Brigade of Guards tie is intended to represent the blue blood of the Royal Family along with the red blood of the Brigade; the Zingari Cricket Club, shown at left, boasts the colors black, red and gold, symbolizing the motto "Out of darkness, through fire, into light."

Sometimes the story behind a tie is as colorful as the tie itself. One afternoon in the 1920s, for example, the English actor Norman Forbes Robertson wore a salmon-and-cucumber number to lunch at London's exclusive Garrick Club, joking that it was the official club tie. So many members wanted one that the club formally adopted it.