I hope they go the way of the dinosaurs; but 500 year old traditions die hard. I am not holding my breath.
Ties: The End
- Thread starter TinyTim
- Start date
Back when men wore suits and white or blue shirts, adding a tie allowed men to express their individuality.
When I went to college at the University of Virginia, men were required to wear a coat and tie to class. It did not have to be a suite and the bottom half might be blue jeans or shorts, but the top half was traditional.
When I got my first job in a research lab, we had to wear a coat and tie to work, but the coat was soon replaced with a lab coat after entering. The tie remained.
For nearly 20 years after that I worked in manufacturing facilities. Wearing a tie was considered hazardous as it could be caught in equipment. However, I still wore a coat an tie when going to church or more formal social activities.
For ten years, I worked in a technical service job where we are supposed to wear a tie at all times. Sometimes I wore a blazer, sometimes a leather jacket, sometimes just a short sleeve shirt, depending on the weather, but the tie was always worn. I still wore a coat and tie to church and to more formal social activities.
For the last 13 years of my career, ties were discouraged, even at the corporate HQ where only the CEO wore a coat and tie.
I am retired now. I no longer wear a tie to church. The only time I wear a tie is to weddings and funerals. I once had about fifty of them. I have gotten rid of all but my favorites.
Unfortunately, I think the absence of coats and ties are a symptom of the less respectful society we have come to be over the past 50 years. Wearing a coat and tie was a way of conforming to the norms of society, yet still using your choice of tie to maintain some individuality. Now it seems there are no norms of society with which to conform. It is like the Wild West all over again.
When I went to college at the University of Virginia, men were required to wear a coat and tie to class. It did not have to be a suite and the bottom half might be blue jeans or shorts, but the top half was traditional.
When I got my first job in a research lab, we had to wear a coat and tie to work, but the coat was soon replaced with a lab coat after entering. The tie remained.
For nearly 20 years after that I worked in manufacturing facilities. Wearing a tie was considered hazardous as it could be caught in equipment. However, I still wore a coat an tie when going to church or more formal social activities.
For ten years, I worked in a technical service job where we are supposed to wear a tie at all times. Sometimes I wore a blazer, sometimes a leather jacket, sometimes just a short sleeve shirt, depending on the weather, but the tie was always worn. I still wore a coat and tie to church and to more formal social activities.
For the last 13 years of my career, ties were discouraged, even at the corporate HQ where only the CEO wore a coat and tie.
I am retired now. I no longer wear a tie to church. The only time I wear a tie is to weddings and funerals. I once had about fifty of them. I have gotten rid of all but my favorites.
Unfortunately, I think the absence of coats and ties are a symptom of the less respectful society we have come to be over the past 50 years. Wearing a coat and tie was a way of conforming to the norms of society, yet still using your choice of tie to maintain some individuality. Now it seems there are no norms of society with which to conform. It is like the Wild West all over again.
To me, when I still wore suits every day, ties were a great way to change your look every day. I learned that trick very early in my career. I built up a collection of about 80 ties over several decades, and have only discarded a handful, although I rarely wear them. The other fun thing to do was tying different styles of knots: four in hand, windsor, or half-windsor. There were a few others I cannot remember now. A properly-knotted tie can really make your outfit stand out.
I hope ties stay around. I think they will in my lifetime.
Btw, I just looked, and you can still buy spats. So I am pretty sure ties have at least another 100 years to go.
I hope ties stay around. I think they will in my lifetime.
Btw, I just looked, and you can still buy spats. So I am pretty sure ties have at least another 100 years to go.
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When I retired, three contractor size bags full of suits and ties went straight to the charity drop box. Probably 50 silk ties gone without a second thought. Followed by another round of dress socks and shoes. Cowboy boots, jeans and t-shirts going forward. Retired life is so good!
When I came to the US one of the big changes for me was not longer to wear a tie for work! In Germany my "uniform" was nice sports coat, dress slacks and tie. Glad here we just wore a button down shirt, and chinos. I might have worn a twice a year, funerals or some fancy events. Now I wear only a tie when I go to a horse show, here ties are still required and even in the heat of the summer they may allow to skip the coat, but tie stays on.
I wear them infrequently. My workplace is business casual but my club still requires a tie for certain events and in the formal dining room.
To that end, I only have a few and in plain colours.
To that end, I only have a few and in plain colours.
tankerjohn
A little poofier than I prefer
I love my ties. The tie is a nice splash of color or texture that completes an outfit. It’s the stark vertical line up your front that makes your midsection appear just a little taller and slimmer, while drawing attention to your face. It can subtly signal important personal details like affiliation with a group or appreciation of an idea without the garishness of a logo or pretention of a lapel pin. They do that particularly well in the UK, with its multitudes of stripes and tartans for every conceivable regiment, school, club, clan, and regional jurisdiction. There are awful ties, to be sure, mainly worn by men who never wanted to wear a tie in the first place. Those will not be missed in the march to open-collar dominance.
As mainstream society collectively sheds its neckwear, I predict tie wearers will fall into two camps. The first are the ones who will still wear a tie as a vestigial garment to signify to their station, like a judge’s robe or a doctor’s white lab coat. Lawyers, politicians, TV news anchors, sleezy used car salesmen, etc. I expect those ties will be worn adequately, if lovelessly. The second group are those of us in the tie-loving remnant who will buck the zeitgeist and proudly adorn our collars with jaunty strips of fabric at our workplaces, houses of worship, and important social occasions. One hopes that the decrease in quantity of ties will lead to increase in the quality of ties as we “tie-hards”, if I might coin a term, sport taste and discernment in our neckwear. Wearing a tie will, actually, be a great way to stand out among the tieless, faceless throngs, much as bowtie wearers have done for years. “Hey, there’s John the Tie Guy; I remember him.” So, in closing…the tie is dead. Long live the tie!
As mainstream society collectively sheds its neckwear, I predict tie wearers will fall into two camps. The first are the ones who will still wear a tie as a vestigial garment to signify to their station, like a judge’s robe or a doctor’s white lab coat. Lawyers, politicians, TV news anchors, sleezy used car salesmen, etc. I expect those ties will be worn adequately, if lovelessly. The second group are those of us in the tie-loving remnant who will buck the zeitgeist and proudly adorn our collars with jaunty strips of fabric at our workplaces, houses of worship, and important social occasions. One hopes that the decrease in quantity of ties will lead to increase in the quality of ties as we “tie-hards”, if I might coin a term, sport taste and discernment in our neckwear. Wearing a tie will, actually, be a great way to stand out among the tieless, faceless throngs, much as bowtie wearers have done for years. “Hey, there’s John the Tie Guy; I remember him.” So, in closing…the tie is dead. Long live the tie!
- Thread starter
- #30
A nice summing up. My daughter is a family medicine physician and does not wear a white coat. Causes too many patients' blood pressures to spike and scares little kids.
For those of us who love beautiful ties, here are a few sources for more traditional ties, not the fashion statements of Hermes or even Vineyard Vines.
O'Connell's...a mammoth selection and range of prices
Sam Hober
Chipp...great deals
Andover Shop...a smaller selection than O'Connell's but some great ties straddling stodgy and modern
High Cotton
Beau Ties
R. Hanauer
Ben Silver, especially for regimentals and other repps
O'Connell's...a mammoth selection and range of prices
Sam Hober
Chipp...great deals
Andover Shop...a smaller selection than O'Connell's but some great ties straddling stodgy and modern
High Cotton
Beau Ties
R. Hanauer
Ben Silver, especially for regimentals and other repps
tankerjohn
A little poofier than I prefer
Thank you sir. Great suggestions! May I add to not sleep on thrift stores. It only takes a minute or so to survey the tie rack and I've found a few gems for a buck or two.
I like bow ties. I have some regular ties as well. One of my hobbies is making my own bow ties. I keep one eye on the thrift shops, looking for neckties with patterns that will work for a bow tie. I've also had some neckties recycled by a tailor into bows -- usually the silk ones that are really hard for me to work with on an old Singer hand-crank machine.
I didn't ever work anywhere that ties were required. Umm...well, unless it was part of the uniform but I wasn't in that context too long. I like bows because I have to work harder to dunk them into my soup, and because I can buy a really nice bow tie for $75 where a really nice necktie will set me back a couple hundred.
Plus, most people see a guy in a necktie and they think "insurance salesman." They see a guy in a bow tie and they think "quirky old dude, but likely harmless." It's useful misdirection.
O.H.
I didn't ever work anywhere that ties were required. Umm...well, unless it was part of the uniform but I wasn't in that context too long. I like bows because I have to work harder to dunk them into my soup, and because I can buy a really nice bow tie for $75 where a really nice necktie will set me back a couple hundred.
Plus, most people see a guy in a necktie and they think "insurance salesman." They see a guy in a bow tie and they think "quirky old dude, but likely harmless." It's useful misdirection.
O.H.
I still maintain a handful of ties to match with my suits.
Haven't been required to wear a tie since I left the Finance Sector, but I still enjoy wearing a good suit now and again.
These days I more often wear Olukai slippas for play and dress.
Shoes are foreign to me when I need to head onsite into the lab...
Haven't been required to wear a tie since I left the Finance Sector, but I still enjoy wearing a good suit now and again.
These days I more often wear Olukai slippas for play and dress.
Shoes are foreign to me when I need to head onsite into the lab...
A couple hundred for a tie???? I always thought mine were pretty decent, but I guess not. However, I have only owned one silk tie and that was a gift.
I've never paid $200 for a tie. It would be a necktie, and I don't really like them. However, I have paid $75 for a really nice bow tie. If it had been a necktie (and thus lots more fabric) it woulda been a lot pricier. Most of my "boughten" bows ran around $45. Haunting thrift shops for nice ties has gotten me a few nice bows for about $4 and a little work, that would have been about $30 ties if I'd bought them as bows.
There was another professor on campus who liked ties, but he was a necktie man. He used to see me wearing a nice bow and say, "I hate you! You can buy three of those for what one of mine cost." I'd always suggest he simply start buying bows, but he didn't personally think they were a good fit to his style.
"Decent" by the way has nothing to do with price. I've bought decent ties from Costco.
These days I'm not buying many ties. In fact, none. But I keep looking in the thrift stores because you never know what you'll find.
O.H.
I've only owned three ties in my entire adult life. When my father passed away in October of 2007 we buried him in one of them. The other two I gave away. No ties for me.
All kinds of wonderful stuff. Stolid Brooks Brothers ties to fish ties and everything in between. Vintage ties, square end ties, skinny mod ties, ancient madder paisley, knit ties, insanely wide kipper ties, wool ties, cotton ties, shantung silk. I love thrifting for ties.
Always enjoyed wearing a suit. Nothing sets a fellows attitude for the office like suiting up. Ties can be uncomfortable because so many men outgrew their neck size or cinched too tightly. Lunch was often a tuck in though I had a special tie bar with a pull down cover at one time.
Wore a suit and tie for a few decades of my career. Business casual and the descent into casual office environments relegated suits to weddings and funerals. Also coincided with a noticeable decline in deference and rise in disrespectful behavior from junior staff.
I own but two suits now. Still wear a long raincoat on nasty weather days when going to the office. Nothing better. When I retire in a few years I likely won't wear a suit again.
Wore a suit and tie for a few decades of my career. Business casual and the descent into casual office environments relegated suits to weddings and funerals. Also coincided with a noticeable decline in deference and rise in disrespectful behavior from junior staff.
I own but two suits now. Still wear a long raincoat on nasty weather days when going to the office. Nothing better. When I retire in a few years I likely won't wear a suit again.
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