When and where to wear a tie?

• Wearing a tie is not as straightforward as it used to be. In days gone by, and not that long ago, ties would be worn everywhere by men. It wasn’t even a formal thing back then. Men used to wear ties to dinner with their families. So every man generally wore ties for most of the time. Then things changed around the 1980s, when a certain movie character was responsible for a huge backlash against the corporate tie-wearing male.

  In the 1980s movie Wall Street, Michael Douglas played a character called Gordon Gecko. Gordon was a hugely successful and unscrupulous trader in Wall Street, stopping at nothing in the pursuit of money. He wore ties too, lots of them. They were big, masculine ties that obviously cost a lot of money. Then there was the backlash against his character, who used the immortal phrase ‘Greed is good’. Greed wasn’t good in a world that was facing recession, and everyone got mad.

  The dot.com boom of the nineties led to casual Fridays at work, where people just stopped wearing ties. Then, with the explosion of mega companies like Facebook, whose top executives never wore ties, the mood kind of changed.

  Personal choice

  Believe it or not, ties are now more of a personal choice than ever before. Men are no longer compelled to wear them to fit in with tradition or social mores. But if you are going to wear a tie, you simply can.

  In large parts of the corporate world you can still find yourself needing to wear a tie, especially if you are in the middle of the hierarchy, or towards the entry level stage. In the end, it is entirely the choice of the company as regards if their employees have to wear ties. So you will see some companies having their men wear ties, and others seeing it as no big deal.

  On more formal occasions though, tradition still holds sway. If you attend a funeral, you would be very lucky indeed to get away with not wearing a tie. Nine times out of ten, wearing a tie means that you have to wear a dark tie too.

  At weddings everyone is expected to dress their best, and this means wearing a tie for men. These are great opportunities to pull out all the stops when it comes to looking good, and it is not uncommon for men to spend a lot of money on a high quality tie, so that they look their best.

  Ties are also a good idea for job interviews or presentations, where you are expected to dress formally. This is something that will not change. It seems the occasion often dictates whether or not you are supposed to wear a tie.

  Of course, if you’re a man and you find yourself in a situation where you are expected to dress to impress, then by all means wear a tie. There is still nothing as immediately sophisticated as a high quality tie.

  
  
  

  by: admin

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