Neckties and Chirality

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The diagonally striped men's necktie presents an example of chirality (mod. Gr., χξιρ, hand). They are non-superimposable mirror images of one another, just as is a pair of hands itself. Using the four fingers of the curled hand of the left hand to ascend - or descend - the spiral, the thumb points in the direction of the motion.
The tie is believed to be a descendent of the cravat, worn by Croatian mercenaries who brought the fashion to Paris during the reign of Louis XIII. The cravat became popular under the fashion conscious Louis XIV and it was readily adopted by the French military. Charles II, who had been exiled in France during the English Civil War, brought the style to England as he assumed the throne in 1660. The pattern of the tie became a signature of the English fighting unit.
A visit to http://www.stephenallenmenswear.co.uk/regimental/ reveals an extensive collection of regimental ties of the British Air Force, Navy and Army. Of those ties that could be clearly defined as striped (Rep Stripe) or bearing a zig-zag pattern in a spiral arrangement, 188 could be identified. Excluded were patterns that bore individual motifs that seemingly were arranged in a spiral. See tie #40. The chart below provides the results.

The preponderance of the ties are righthanded. The Army not only has the highest percentage of righthanded ties but also the majority of them. The naval ties are preferentially righthanded but few in number while, the Air Force, the most recent of the services principally has ties that are lefthanded. One may argue facetiously that the Air Force, relatively young compared to the other two service arms, may not have had much to pick from among the remaining righthanded ties, and opted instead for the opposite handedness. Alternatively, they may have sought to establish their independence from the other services.

On the subject of independence, one account holds that when this tradition passed to the Americas, militias opted for the lefthanded stripe. A visit to the noted New Haven clothier J. Press, infamous for allegedly creating the "Ivy League look" and historically responsible for the sartorially resplendent male Yalie, reveals a collection of 48 striped ties, all are lefthanded except for 3 that are achiral! More grist for the mill. Hansen's Clothing (Spencer, Iowa) provides regimental (striped) ties in school colors. In the US visit Sam Hober for more proof. A random sampling of over ten of them revealed only lefthanded patterns.