The one rule all men need to follow if they're going to wear a bow tie

Menswear expert G. Bruce Boyer is a fan of bow ties. He's not such a fan of pre-tied, clip-on bow ties, however.

"You can tie a bow tie," Boyer writes in "True Style: The History & Principles of Classic Menswear". "If I hear another grown man say he can't, I'll shoot myself."

Boyer has no patience for men who claim they can't figure out how to tie a bow. If you're going to wear a bow tie, it simply needs to be one that you tied yourself.

You can always identify a pre-tied bow tie by the fact that it's just a little too studied. Perfectly straight, perfectly symmetrical, and perfectly balanced. Just like plastic surgery, clip-on bow ties just look too perfect to be real. Boyer says it is one of the most obvious signs that you're a style amateur.

Many men wear these pre-tied bow ties because they feel they can't tie a perfect bow tie, or that they don't know how to. That misses the point. 

"You tie bows all day long," Boyer writes. "A bow tie is simply a bow that happens to be tied at the throat."