Fit To Be Tied

Watching Downton Abbey, it struck me that it all started with the shift from white tie to black. That was the beginning of the end. Not only did people change for dinner, but a decent man wore tails, while tuxedos were for the tasteless nouveau riche. I, of course, would have been a servant in livery at best, so it’s not as if this had any applicability to my life, but the point was clear. Social formality distinguished the well-bred from the wannabes, and both distinguished the servants from the served.

With notable exceptions, people no longer wear ties. Some still wear suits, but with open collars and no ties. To my old eye, it’s not a good look, not that anyone asked me. But the argument is that ties serve no purpose, are constricting and tell the world that you’re old. Peter Coy, who says he owns 252 neckties, laments their passing.

We necktie wearers are cruelly derided: “You know who always wears a necktie? Salesmen, attorneys and politicians — all professions based on trying to gain trust from people,” Stephen Johnson wrote last year in an article for Lifehacker titled, “Throw Your Neckties in the Damn Garbage Already.” He added, “Unless you use it to wipe your mouth, a necktie has no function.”

Probably the foremost cause of the tie’s demise is the rise of casualness. Casual feels good. Casual is easy. Casual is cool. Ties are not casual. Amidst the television commercials extolling the virtues of buying cars without ever getting off the couch (because god forbid you have to ever flex a leg muscle, ugh, so much effort) are advertisements for clothing that saves you from the burden of buttoning your jeans with elastic waistbands or tying your sneakers, which you slip into without so much as bending. Of course, it won’t help you to run faster or jump higher, but then who does that while never getting off one’s couch?

But ties do serve a purpose, if not quite a function. They distinguish us walking around the house in our pajamas from our dressing more formally. There’s a feeling one gets from dressing up. One is more formal in ones manner and more serious in one’s demeanor. For a woman, it can be wearing high heels and a dress, perhaps even a gown. For a man, it’s wearing a suit and tie. You look more distinguished and people treat you accordingly.

When it comes to suits, there aren’t a great many variations that work. For lawyers, it’s largely gray or blue, and the biggest question is pinstripe or not. Shirts used to be white only, until blue crept in. Then other colors and stripes, with the occasional check, started to appear. But they were still largely routine, part of the “uniform” that made life easier as you didn’t have to spend much time thinking about what to wear.

But there was one item of clothing that allowed your personality to come through. You guessed it. Whether it was the 80’s red “power tie,” the regimental stripe or the foulard, it gave you that splash of color, that bit of design, that allowed some individuality to shine through. Unlike the pocket squares worn by dandies, a well-tied tie established your bona fides as a well-dressed man.

Coy, the economist, speaks of his ties as “stranded assets.” I get it, as I have a small fortune tied up in ties. When my German son came to visit, he bought a couple suits in the city. I gave him two Hermès ties I had purchased but never wore to go with his new suits. I have no idea if he’ll ever use them, but if the occasion calls for ties, he’ll be prepared.  From his descriptions, Coy’s ties seem a bit more idiosyncratic than most. Then again, I have a “fair and balanced” tie from Fox and Friends years ago, as well as a New York Times crossword puzzle tie. Ties can be playful or serious. The absence of a tie also tells a story.

Women’s Wear Daily lamented last year that all seven leaders of the Group of 7 nations posed tieless for their photo at a summit in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Heads of state have rarely been known for their style, but the enforced drabness was, to me, depressing. I wear ties every chance I get to un-strand my stranded assets and to inject a little color and freshness into life. And what’s wrong with that?

I remember that photo well. They looked like frat boys at the end of a bender rather than heads of state.

It takes a little more effort to look good. It can be more constricting to have your collar buttoned and held tight by a tie. But the casual ease of wearing sweats or pajamas all the time is no substitute for the feeling one has when you don more formal attire. And that means a tie. It’s easy to explain why they’re silly vestiges of bygone days, but they still reflect well on their wearer, whether you want to admit it or not.