Bowties Are Cool

The greatest bow-tie aficionado from the manga pages is clearly Detective Conan's Kudo Shinichi in his Edogawa Conan form, who almost always wears a seriously snappy bowtie — he can't even solve most of his mysteries without a magic voice-changer inside it. (The efficacy and versatility of this device on short notice occasionally smacks of Applied Phlebotinum.)

Ranma would occasionally wear a rather nice pastel orange shirt combined with a little red bow-tie.

Hanson and Sanson wear bowtie as part of their uniforms. Maybe justified for the time period.

Shizuo Heiwajima has one as part of the bartender uniform he constantly wears.

Occasionally he wears it unclipped◊ just to add to the badassery.

Tuxedo Mask's snazzy tailcoat would not be complete without a nice white bowtie.

Bruce Wayne manages a very nice-looking one.


As do most iterations of Alfred.


His arch-enemies, The Joker and the Penguin tend to wear them as well as part of their old-fashion dress suits.

The Baron has a rather natty bowtie, and he is awesome.

Jack Skellington has a bowtie that looks like a bat.

Max winds up sporting one in the latter acts.

Cool is an understatement.

Buckaroo Banzai frequently sports a bowtie, following his 80s nerd-chic look.

The Devil makes a red bow tie look cool.

James Bond has been rocking this trope for almost fifty years now.

Patrick Troughton, 2nd Doctor


Jon Pertwee, 3rd Doctor

The Eleventh Doctor: The Trope Namer! Played with, slightly, in that he's the only one around who actually thinks this.

Dr Bashir and Garak in the Bond spoof episode "Our Man Bashir"

Brother Mouzone. It's hinted that he is or was associated with the Nation of Islam.

Quite a few scientists in Real Life also wear bowties because they can't fall into beakers or chemical spills like regular neckties can. No doubt Bill was just going for the Adorkable look, though.

Kurt Hummel and Artie Abrams both wear bowties fairly frequently — though Kurt more frequently than Artie. Artie's bowties are typically dorky.


However, given Kurt's overall fashion sense and the fact that his bowties have been known to feature such items as tiny plastic steampunky clockfaces, he's proof of the fact that bowties genuinely can be cool, if they're the right bowties.


In Season 3, Blaine Anderson wears those constantly, along with ''polo shirts that are too small for even him, bright-colored pants, and a dorky haircut. He might be trying to look childish.

It is a running gag in the show that Mr. Gilmore is always wearing bow ties. Lorelei even wraps her father's gift in a bow tie (the story is much longer, featuring more bow tie jokes). Since he is older, it encompasses the Gentleman of a Certain Age trope as well.

Bill has a bowtie as his sole article of clothing.

Bowtie from the original My Little Pony was fond of these, and in the cartoon she wore them in her mane.