I wouldn't say it's trending on Twitter, but #bringbackthecravat is certainly gaining traction in the world of social media.

So is its sidekick, #cravatfriday. As you've probably guessed, the first hashtag reflects an attempt to persuade us that cravats are soon to have a fashion moment. The second aims to make that moment a weekday beginning with an F.

"So much more gracious than Dressdown Friday," tweets one cravat enthusiast. "Join the group of dapper men on the crusade," urges another. "I told you the cravat was coming back, and all you did was laugh at me," writes someone called Dave Yates. "Who's laughing now?"

Dave, trust me: nobody's laughing. Hear that? It's very definitely the sound of people not laughing.

For any readers who weren't aware that the cravat is Croatia's sole contribution to fashion - those checkerboard football tops don't count - let me tell you that it is, and that Zagreb's Academia Cravatica exists to promote this fact. The cravat, it says on its website, "emerged as an expression of the genius of the Croatian people".

Falling into line behind the Academia Cravatica is a small army of men's fashion blogs and Nicholas Parsons who is, depending on your point of view, one of Britain's best-loved radio hosts or That Annoying Guy Who Presented Sale Of The Century In The 1970s.

"I started wearing cravats a number of years ago and now I'd rather like to bring back the cravat," Parsons told an audience at last month's Edinburgh Book Festival. "I think the open-necked shirt is rather ugly. It's not the most attractive part of a man's anatomy. It's all right in the summer, with just a shirt and shorts maybe, but I've seen people with beautifully tailored jackets on, with an open shirt there with an awful Adam's apple."

There's no Adam and no apple in the line-up at Cravat Club, the London-based firm refashioning the cravat for 21st-century tastes. But there is a bewildering range of styles with names such as Lazarus, Cassius, Adonis and (my favourite) Thor. Being of a patriotic nature, I'd probably go for the Fife, although I also like the look of the Vlad and the Victor, which have skull designs.

For a sartorial splash, it's hard to see past the Ernest - not only because it's spectacularly bright, but because it's also rather splendid. Imagine the Paisley-pattern flock wallpaper in an Indian restaurant whose owner's design brief had been "Liberace's bathroom meets Teletubbies. But louder. And on acid".

The Cravat Club ties cost £60-£70 and, as long as you don't let the scaffolders behind you in the Greggs queue overhear, they allow you to impress your friends and workmates by saying things like: "My Icarus cravat in midnight navy with its rather fetching silver, azure and Imperial blue fern pattern has a malleability factor of five out of five."

As luck would have it, October 18 is World Cravat Day, so you have about a month to prepare.

By the way, as soon as I can remember my Twitter password, I'm starting #bringbackspats and #spatmonday. And you can laugh if you want.