We have no "Objection!" to his fashion sense.
"B-bib?! Now see here, you uncouth barbarian! This is a CRAVAT!"
— Virion, Fire Emblem: Awakening
A cravat is a strip of cloth originating from Croatia that is wrapped and tied around the neck, sometimes embellished with lace or other decals. It's a predecessor to the necktie, and a common accessory in 17th to 19th century men's fashion.
It's also excellent shorthand to show your audience that a character is one rich, classy bastard.
More often than not, a character who wears a cravat will be quite a proponent of the Good Old Ways — if they're not already living in Ye Goode Olde Days, that is (which they often are). Typically, they will be of Blue Blood or The Beautiful Elite. The more elaborate the cravat is, the more aristocratic (or villainous, or just pompous) the character wearing it will be.
If a character in the modern era wants to show their status, but doesn't want to look like they popped out of a time machine, they will often wear a toned down Ascot. These have the similar connotations, just with a more modern touch.
Compare Waistcoat of Style, which the cravat is often combined with. A part of A Man of Wealth and Taste's repertoire. May be part of Awesome Anachronistic Apparel. Also see Tacky Tuxedo.
This page is specifically for the cravat that is most associated with formal period wear. The scarflike neckwear that Americans call an ascot (but what purists would call a day cravat) is actually much more casual. It was popular from The '50s to The '70s but still pops up occasionally.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Levi from Attack on Titan wears one, perhaps to emphasize his surprisingly fussy personality.
- The Big O: The cockpit hatch on the front of Big O's neck is designed to look like one, fitting with the classy Art Deco meets Steampunk aesthetic of the series.
- Akutagawa from Bungo Stray Dogs wears one. He's from the mafia.
- Several characters in Code Geass, mostly Britannians, wear it, including Lelouch himself in his Zero costume.
- The cravat is part of the Shinsengumi officer uniform in Gintama.
- There's bound to be at least a couple of characters in any given Gundam series who rock a cravat.
- Hello Sandybelle: Kitty is a rare female example as all her outfits usually have a blue cravat. She's also the heiress of the Shearer & Co. conglomerate business and a Rich Bitch to boot.
- Austria from Hetalia: Axis Powers wears a cravat as a part of his aristocratic style.
- Isabelle of Paris: As part of his civilian uniform, the bourgeoisie French military captain Andréa wears two.
- Reisi Munakata, the Blue King in K, has one on his uniform. None of the other members of Scepter 4 have neckwear at all.
- Sasahara from Nichijou wears one, though it's revealed in the first episode that despite acting like an Upper-Class Twit he actually comes from a family of farmers.
- Cravats are included in the male uniforms of Kinkan/Gold Crown Academy in Princess Tutu.
- Voltes V: Marquis Zaki, the cheif inspector of Emperor Zambajil wears one, alongside long hair and thick eyelashes.
Fan Works
- In Flash Fog, Rarity outfits Fluttershy with one of these to make her look like a proper authority figure.
- Anastasia Burns of The Simpsons: Team L.A.S.H. wears a purple cravat, signifying her aristocratic personality.
Films — Animation
- Prince Hans from Frozen wears a white suit, complete with purple cravat, to Queen Elsa's coronation ceremony.
- Professor Ratigan, the Big Bad of The Great Mouse Detective, wears a pink and purple striped cravat as part of his Victorian gentleman's getup.
Films — Live-Action
- Austin Powers and his "frilly lace cravat."
Literature
- In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Humpty Dumpty wears an ornate wrap for which, due to his head also being his body, Alice is uncertain whether it is a cravat or a belt. He insists that it is a cravat, and is most concerned with its fineness, this highlighting his pomposity and also the absurdity of his being an anthropomorphic egg.
- Part of the standard attire for a nobleman in Doctrine of Labyrinths' Marathat.
- In Hurricane Gold, the Wicked Cultured mastermind El Huracán is described as wearing one.
- Most versions of The Scarlet Pimpernel have Sir Percy discourse at length about a cravat and how it should properly look to emphasize his foppishness, which is a large part of his disguise.
- In Sorcery and Cecelia, Oliver is obsessed with finding new and fashionable ways to tie his cravat.
Live-Action TV
- In the original 1978 Battlestar Galactica, Commander Cain of the Pegasus wore a cravat with his Colonial Warrior Uniform. He lampshades the trope somewhat as being a "lead from the front line" warrior type, he certainly doesn't fit the "cushy" stereotype for cravat wearers.
- Doctor Who:
- The Fourth Doctor starts out wearing a square silk scarf instead of a tie, but switches to these as his character develops into an Eccentric Mentor authority figure.
- The Eighth Doctor pairs a cravat with his natty Waistcoat of Style in the TV movie. It's a little more disheveled by "Night of the Doctor", to go with his more rough-and-tumble look overall.
- Mystery writer and radio host Simon Brimmer in the 1970s television series Ellery Queen wore an ascot in 1940s New York City. He projects an image of himself as A Man of Wealth and Taste in contrast to Ellery's absent-minded genius.
- Matt Preston, celebrity chef on MasterChef. He even wrote a book titled Caravatalicious.
- Match Game: Charles Nelson Reilly often wore one, along with a Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe.
- Nikola Tesla from Sanctuary has a fondness for cravats, to the point that Helen Magnus quips at one point the she hasn't "seen [him] so depressed since the cravat went out of fashion."
- In an episode of Scrubs, Elliot wears one on a "Girls night out" with Carla. It's played for laughs and to show how different their backgrounds are.
Professional Wrestling
- Before he joined D-Generation X and shortened his name to Triple H, he was Hunter Hearst Helmsley, a Connecticut blue-blood who used to wear silk shirts with a cravat. In WCW before that, he was Jean-Paul Leveque, the same basic character and outfit but with a French accent.
Video Games
- Dracula in the Castlevania series is usually depicted with a cravat, showing signs of Wicked Cultured. Alucard, his son and good mirror counterpart wears one too, but it's tied into a loose ribbon. In any case, Dracula is one of the few cases where it is used to look sinister.
- Tyrant Valvatorez from Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten wore a cravat as part of his Classical Movie Vampire wardrobe. After his fall from power, the cravat is replaced by a Cleavage Window.
- Fire Emblem:
- The extravagant Virion in Fire Emblem: Awakening wears one in his default outfit as an Archer; Sully nicknames him "Ruffles" for it. As quoted above, he is rather indignant when the Avatar calls him a "grown man in a bib". It makes even more sense when it's revealed he was the Duke of Roseanne.
- Prince Xander in Fire Emblem Fates sports one as well, highlighting his status as the eldest of the Nohrian royal siblings. Jakob wears one as part of his Battle Butler uniform (so anyone that also changes into this job class also sports one), and Hinoka wears one that's so long it looks to be a scarf, but would seem to actually be a cravat.
- Constance in Fire Emblem: Three Houses has one as part of her post-timeskip design.
- When The Shinsengumi make the switch from traditional Japanese garb to Western-style uniforms in Hakuouki, Hijikata and Sanan's new uniforms include stylish cravats.
- Some of the snobby aristocrats in Haunt the House wear cravats, to show their status.
- Shuperi Inowey from the obscure fighting game Jingi Storm wears a cravat as part of his elaborate attire, even though such an outfit is, well, unsuitable for taking part in a tournament of fisticuffs.
- Emperor Jillius from Klonoa: Empire of Dreams tops off his fancy robe with a frilly cravat adorned with a purple jewel.
- Prince Sidon in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom wears one, despite not wearing any clothes due to him being a Zora (aquatic race of fish people).
- Persona 5: The main character's Fighting Spirit, an Anthropomorphic Personification of Gentleman Thief trope codifier Arsène Lupin, wears a long white cravat around its neck, along with a fancy black top hat and other fineries. Party Member Haru Okumura, heiress of Okumura Foods, wears one with a simple ruby-and-gold brooch as part of her Musketeer-themed Metaverse attire.
- Lucas, the male Player Character, wears one in Pokemon Platinum to go with his more winter-themed attire. Lickilicky also has a pattern evoking the appearance of one, likely intended to evoke the image of some sort of upper-class gourmand.
- Dunban wears one in his default look in Xenoblade Chronicles 1, though Dunban's no royalty - it's more so reflective of his status as a kind and chivalrous Cultured Badass.
Visual Novels
- Miles Edgeworth, Manfred von Karma, and Franziska von Karma from the Ace Attorney series all wear rather fancy jobots (incorrectly called cravats) as part of their Awesome Anachronistic Apparel. Lord Barok van Zieks in The Great Ace Attorney also wears one, but is much more setting appropriate - though the rest of his clothing is, ironically, anachronistic.
- In Umineko: When They Cry, Rosa, Natsuhi and Lion Ushiromiya wear cravats, and they're all members of the wealthy Ushiromiya family. On the magic side, both Ronove and Dlanor A. Knox wear one as well.
Web Comics
- Gilgamesh Wulfenbach of Girl Genius sometimes wears a snazzy little cravat - When he's actually wearing a shirt, that is.
- Kaiten Mutenmaru: Sick wears a simple cravat that his feathers conceal until he assumes his human disguise. He wore a different cravat as a child to emphasize his noble birth.
- Niels: Agent 300 can often be seen wearing these when he isn't wearing a tie. True to the trope, he's an upper-class Agent Peacock who prides himself on his impeccable fashion sense.
- In early issues of Marvel's Nightstalkers, Frank Drake wore a cravat with period clothing. This was probably a Shout-Out to Simon Belmont from Castlevania. Later issues have Frank adopting a more drab and utilitarian jumpsuit that now appears to be a shout out to these guys.
- Sleepless Domain: In an uncommon female example, a violet ascot is a standard piece of the uniform of the prestigious and all-girls' private academy, Future's Promise School for Magical Girls. Interestingly enough, a similar cravat is worn by several agents of the City Defense Department.
- In The Wolf at Weston Court most human men and male Dwarves in polite society wear them.
Western Animation
- Gravity Falls present us with Baron Marius von Fundshauser in the episode "Northwest Mansion Mystery." A young Austrian baron, his family owns a cravat and epaulet factory and rocks both of them snazzily. He becomes the target of affection for Mabel, Candy and Grenda though he ends up choosing Grenda (they're still together after the season and it's implied they marry in the future.)
- Many of the stallions in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "The Best Night Ever" wear cravats to the Grand Galloping Gala.
- Steven Universe has a Rare Female(ish) Example with Defense
and Prosecuting Zircons. The Prosecutor's is styled like a diamond, but the Defense's is loose, which hints at the Defense coming to distrust the Diamond Authority.
