Cufflinks

Cufflinks are essential if you're wearing double-cuff shirts. The simplest types consist of two discs connected by a short chain. More popularly, cufflinks come as a design connected to a metal bar that slots through the buttonholes. Part of this bar swivels outwards to hold the cufflink in place.

An alternative is the sink knot, which will often come free with a mid-price formal shirt. Co-ordination is key. Unlike cufflinks, these should never stand out.

Common mistakes include:

• Cufflinks worn with single-cuff shirts: this may have worked in the early twentieth-century when heavily-starched cuffs and collars were popular but looks sloppy today
• Matching ties and cufflinks, invariably bought as a present, should always be avoided
• Avoid novelty cufflinks too
• Women should never wear cufflinks

Collar stays

Collar stays (known as collar stiffeners in Britain), are an essential addition to formal shirts. Use collar stays to prevent your collar ends from curling upwards. This look works on rockstars emerging from nightclubs in the early morning. It will not work for you.

In America, many shirts have buttons at the bottoms of the collars. This will not suit the wearing of thicker ties. Although both tie thickness and collar length have recently shortened, a medium length buttonless collar with a half-Windsor knot is timeless. Collar stays help keep everything in place.

Many formal shirts come with plastic collar stays - throw these away and get yourself a metal (or preferably a bone) pair. High-end shirtmakers give them away for free. They are not to be confused with collar pins, popular in the first half of the twentieth-century, but unusual today, which hold the two collars together and pass underneath the knot of your tie.

Tie length: above or below the waist?

Men with multiple style issues

The widest part of your tie should sit roughly at the upper edge of your belt, with the tip extending just below. Wearing a tie at the incorrect length is one of the most common errors of tie-wearing men.

Most men wear their ties slightly too long. Many believe this looks less bad than wearing your tie too short. I disagree. In the mid-twentieth century (when waistbands were higher) short ties were fashionable, but long ties have never been in vogue. Nowadays they both look bad.

But getting your tie to sit precisely where you want isn't easy. Think about the following solutions if you're struggling with tie length:

The height of fashion

If you're taller than average, or if your ties always come up short

• Buy a longer tie
• Use smaller knots like the Pratt or Nicky
• Keep your jacket buttoned
• Begin your knot with the thin end progressively higher, until you find a starting point that works for you and your tie

If you're smaller than average, or if your ties are always too long

• Buy vintage neckties - they tend to be shorter
• Thicker knots like the half-Windsor or Windsor might help use up that extra material
• Choose a heavier cloth
• If the thin end of the tie ends up hanging below the thick end, tuck it in to your shirt, or the band at the back of your tie, or use a tie clip

Above all, remember that your ties are likely to be different from one another in both thickness and length. As different knots need to be used with different ties, so different methods will need to be used to ensure that your tie falls to the right length. And if you suspect you need to tie your tie for the fifth time so that it looks good, always take that extra time. It's better to be slightly late for a meeting than to turn up looking sloppy or ridiculous.

Paul Ryan's ties, and lack thereof

I need to lend this guy a tie...

When Mitt Romney announced Paul Ryan as his running-mate on August 11th Ryan was widely criticized for his sartorial laziness. Nearly everyone focused on Ryan's suit, wondering why he wore a jacket that made him look like a twelve-year-old who's raided his dad's wardrobe.

All sorts of explanations were offered. Was this some subconscious expression of machismo? Is Ryan's so busy putting the world to rights that he doesn't pay attention to what he's wearing? Is it deliberate - he knows that most American men can't get their suit size right, so that's the look he's going for? Or does he just have no fashion sense? But consider the lack of tie and the options lessen.

Look at his Republican Convention outfit for contrast. Wearing a tie should always make a man look better. Otherwise you should not wear one. Does Ryan look better? No.

Hands up if you've got an early
Christmas present from Mitt...

This time the suit was the right size for his shoulders and chest, but it was still an awful suit, and one he could not move in without looking ridiculous. And the tie? Wrong Paul, all wrong. It's too wide, fifteen years out of fashion. It's ice-cold, not the image you want to project when the Democrats are accusing you of being a son-of-Terminator maniac. And the contrast of a very light tie with a very dark suit makes you look, once again, like you've raided someone else's wardrobe. Maybe Romney's - Mitt is fond of pale blue ties? So either Ryan has no style sense or this is a devious ploy on the part of the GOP, who know that the pinko liberal East Coast establishment will continue to scoff, showing how out-of-touch they are with the American heartland. Hmm. I'm going with option A.