Take off your ties, gentlemen!

Very similar to my Dad's old tie

Many years ago my Dad had a collection of very different ties in his wardrobe. He wore cravats, he had a maroon satin tie with a gold embroidered butterfly, he had checkered ties, and many colours. Nothing from these days – he didn’t buy any new ones. I loved the maroon one and I wore that too. When he died I didn’t take any of his but I really wish I had. 

This morning I Googled to find information about the history of neckties. ABC Neckties told about 221BC, where a sculpture of Chinese human soldiers with neckties were buried with their first emperor, Shih Huang Ti. He had been convinced that the soldiers didn’t need to be killed but should be made into a “terracotta army” which would guard him in the future. 

Today I Found Out also mentioned them (the emperor's name was Qin Shih Huang in this one), and noted that the current Chinese army doesn’t wear the same necktie. 

Wikipaedia looked into the history of current neckties, which it said went back to the 17^th century, in the 1640s, under King Louis XIV. He named the neckties as “cravat”, after the Croatian mercenaries. According to Wikipaedia, “This new article of clothing started a fashion craze in Europe; both men and women wore pieces of fabric around their necks.” 

Tie a Tie said that King Louis XIV had made these neckties a “mandatory accessory for Royal gatherings”.  These ties stayed in fashion for 200 years, and by the 1920s had become what our men are now wearing. 

During the 60s and 70s I found very few songs which mentioned neckties, but they were sang by many entertainers – Maya Angelou had started in 1957 with “Calypso Blues” “Me throat she sick from necktie” ; “Who do you love” “I walked forty-seven miles of barbed wire / I got a cobra snake for a necktie” was sung by Bo Diddley in 1957 and sung by at least 10 other groups I found; and six other songs had popped out – have a look through Lyrics. These days there are apparently many other songs which use the word “necktie”, but I’ve never even heard them! 

The Beatles started their music history wearing suits and ties, but lost their ties within a decade. 

Mormons had said “Members attending Sunday services will most likely be wearing their ‘Sunday best,’ which may include suits, sport coats, and ties for the men and modest dresses or skirts for the women. Children also typically dress up for Sunday.” That was – is - a very bad code, which never included women with ties, and yet a Quaker male didn’t believe in wearing a tie – he said “the tie is this symbol of male power” – he knew better than Mormons did. 

Fairly recently some real men showed how they felt about neckties. In January 2015 Tim Duncan, from the San Antonia Spurs NBA team, on a visit to the White House, refused to wear a tie. He looked very good - well done Tim Duncan. 

Will Smith’s son Jaden had apparently “admitted” that he had shopped for girl clothes. This article headline was bad: “Will Smith's son Jaden steps out in a woman's dress as he admits on Instagram that he has been shopping for 'some girl clothes' lately” – admitted?? Jaden wore exactly what he wanted to! No tie. It said “Underneath his eclectic frock were dark colored cutoff jean shorts for a unique androgynous look.” Well done Jaden Smith! 

Modern ties... boring

Very recently I had seen a video (which I now can’t find!) of a group of young males dressed as if they were on business – trousers, shirt and tie – but they were dancing in some sports field and singing about women! This, I think, was some religious (Mormon?) video which is not right. NO woman should be told what they should wear! 

Regardless of anything like this, neckties have become very boring. Every business male wears a tie. Pretty much every male - going to a function, attending a funeral, meeting someone ‘important’ - wears a tie. No cravat, no “old-fashioned” tie, no tie-less neckwear. Very, v-e-r-y boring. 

For me, men’s ties lived in somewhere like my Dad’s wardrobe, included cravats, included fancy or funny ties, included bowties, and men wore them only sometimes. Not always. 

And sometimes… never.