I have something to declare up front. I have never worn, and intend to never wear, a necktie. I did wear a bow tie for my Grade 10 school ball sixteen years ago, but it did have a clip, which I think renders it null and void.
The history of the necktie can be traced back to the Thirty Year War when Croatian mercenaries in the employ of the French, roused the interest of Parisian high society with their traditional small, knotted neckerchiefs (which were more like cravats, to be honest). From here various kinds of dandies and posers have utilised neck ornamentation of various forms for various purposes, not one of which has any actual utility value.
This is the first of two key reasons that I am so opposed to neckties. As a child of modernity, I have embraced the notion of "form following function" in the case of clothing. The necktie, to my mind, stands in the company of high heel shoes and facial piercing. It serves no practical purpose and merely hinders individual performance.
The second reason stems from a rigid working class background and a natural (and very Australian) distaste for explicit demarcations of class and standing in society. In Burnie in the 1980s ties meant one of four things:
- Private school (Arrogant, unpleasant toffs);
- Business man (Bourgeois capitalist exploiter);
- Politician (Politician);
- Funeral director (Creepy).
It is impossible to separate the idea of a tie from a complex and rigid set notions around issues of conformity, expectation, and expression. This is perhaps the only area where I am in agreement with the Ayatollah Khomeini, who denounced the necktie as a decadent symbol of Western oppression. That is why you will never see the usually hunky and suave Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wearing one (not because he thinks that it looks "a bit gay", as has long been rumoured).
Anyhow, today's advertisement features the not-so-humble necktie. I'm not sure if this can't be added to the body of evidence against the tie. Is the fellow in this ad from 1938 so obviously courting two women at once? A bigamist perhaps? Either way, it doesn't look good!
Comments
My husband never liked wearing ties. He had to, when he worked as a sales manager. Now he doesn't wear ties, even for business meetings. I'll get him to read this.
Thanks for visiting Mumbai Daily Snapshot I've answered your doubt about what Mumbaiites wear nowadays.
Although it is true, I've never worn a tie and would rather avoid it if at all possible. I may have felt differently if I wasn't brainwashed at such an early age. ;)