Neck Ties to be Abolished?
September 11th 2006 01:20
Neck Ties to be Abolished?
Go into any office place in the city and you will see them. They hang below the chin of the corporate world like a flag. So many styles and colors but usually in only two varieties: Bow and Standard. Why does do they exist?
Why do people button their top button, even if it strangles them, then place the noose around for good measure? Why should you have to by a shirt based upon neck size and risk all other dimensions being wrong? Do we like having the circulation to the head restricted? What about the rapid blackening of the collar? When you analyze the purpose of a tie it seems to have no other purpose than to be a tie. It doesn’t hold anything. It doesn’t make getting dressed faster, in fact unless you choose a policeman’s elastic tie you have to learn how to tie knots. The Windsor knot may be a higher skill but it is not a crucial survival skill. You have never heard the great explorers declaring that they owe it all the Windsor knot.
Yet here we are in 2006 with an article of clothing that was old when my grandfather was young. It is so ingrained into our society that some venues display that you cannot enter without a tie. No professional (male) would consider attending a job interview without a tie. Failure to do so might spell doom before the questioning starts. We have also created event that are signified by the tie, such as the ‘A Black Tie Dinner Dance’.
Some people have used the argument that a tie is part of the professional uniform and expected standard of dress. Others claim that the tie makes the person more distinguished and neat. Others claim that people treat them with more respect when they wear a tie. Others even claim that wearing a tie will help your career.
So are we trapped by conditioning and culture to be forever tethered around the neck? Would it not make more sense to design shirts better, so that they look neat without needing tie? Ties are superfluous clothing just like the ruffs of Elizabethan England. Perhaps their days are number and future generations will look at us and laugh.
Go into any office place in the city and you will see them. They hang below the chin of the corporate world like a flag. So many styles and colors but usually in only two varieties: Bow and Standard. Why does do they exist?
Why do people button their top button, even if it strangles them, then place the noose around for good measure? Why should you have to by a shirt based upon neck size and risk all other dimensions being wrong? Do we like having the circulation to the head restricted? What about the rapid blackening of the collar? When you analyze the purpose of a tie it seems to have no other purpose than to be a tie. It doesn’t hold anything. It doesn’t make getting dressed faster, in fact unless you choose a policeman’s elastic tie you have to learn how to tie knots. The Windsor knot may be a higher skill but it is not a crucial survival skill. You have never heard the great explorers declaring that they owe it all the Windsor knot.
Yet here we are in 2006 with an article of clothing that was old when my grandfather was young. It is so ingrained into our society that some venues display that you cannot enter without a tie. No professional (male) would consider attending a job interview without a tie. Failure to do so might spell doom before the questioning starts. We have also created event that are signified by the tie, such as the ‘A Black Tie Dinner Dance’.
Some people have used the argument that a tie is part of the professional uniform and expected standard of dress. Others claim that the tie makes the person more distinguished and neat. Others claim that people treat them with more respect when they wear a tie. Others even claim that wearing a tie will help your career.
So are we trapped by conditioning and culture to be forever tethered around the neck? Would it not make more sense to design shirts better, so that they look neat without needing tie? Ties are superfluous clothing just like the ruffs of Elizabethan England. Perhaps their days are number and future generations will look at us and laugh.
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Comment by Ross