I am here to tell you that the tie is coming back. In fact, it is back.
That this news comes to you from a hopeless, recidivist tie addict, who persisted in buying and wearing the things all through their time in the wilderness, doesn’t imply that it isn’t true. Look around you. Neckwear is on the up, and not only in the strange preserves of menswear fetishism. Beyond Instagram and the runways, ties are reappearing like green shoots in the spring.
Tying and wearing a tie is not and should not be a precise art
It is a standard trope of style journalism that “this” year (whatever the year happens to be) will see a return to formality and tradition in menswear. I think, or possibly hope, that this is not what is going on with ties. Instead, neckwear is back because of a longer cultural process, through which it has become easier for men – a group, to generalise wildly, that has lived in fear of seeming too focused on appearance – to indulge in a little self-decoration. There were always men who took care to dress attractively. There are just more of them now. It is the right time, then, to revisit some basic principles of tie-wearing.
Loro Piana silk Yale ties, £225 each, silk Royal Paisley tie, £245, cotton Andrew shirt, £630, and cotton trousers, £880. Ferragamo patent leather shoes, £910 © Rodrigo Carmuega
