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| Redford in The Old Man and the Gun - with tie loosened |
This year we have been worrying about Brexit, climate change and Donald Trump So what am I writing about at the end of 2018? The importance of a necktie, of course.
I am one of those men who never quite feel they have finished getting dressed until they have put their tie on. In practice, however, I rarely wear one, however, unless I have a specific reason to do so such as going to work (increasingly unnecessary) or attending some formal event (increasingly rare). I have quite a good collection of ties in my wardrobe, two dozen I chose myself plus a few ones leftover work ones and others given as presents which I never actually wear, but which I could not throw away because they remind me of the person who gave them “hideous ties, so kindly meant” as John Betjeman put it in his lovely poem about Christmas, which you can see and hear him reading on YouTube (link) – wearing a tie.
While they are still considered de rigeur for male politicians, newsreaders and James Bond, the health risks of ties are increasingly making them redundant and even dangerous. They are said to increase the risks of strokes and to carry germs so are effectively banned in hospitals: you never see a doctor wearing one there nowadays and rarely in a surgery, whereas previous generations regarded it as an essential sign of professionalism and, I suppose, seriousness. You were just not considered a fully paid up professional unless you wore that stretch of silk or wool, often with the badge of your professional organisation.
Gradually the old school tie gave way to the fashionable accessory; tie shops began to appear and a sign of seriousness became an excuse for frivolity. This undermined the point of a tie, which might have been completely plain in its heyday. A stripe or two would be the nearest it came to raffishness, even these carrying a hint of the old school or professional association which you (or your parents) had to earn the right to wear. As often as not a tie would signify membership of a club or organisation and would set the wearer apart as a man of distinction, a real big spender as Shirley Bassey would say with a hint that she wanted a piece of the action – in both senses. A tie equalled money equalled success equalled sex. The act of undoing it could slow down the process of love-making but maybe that was no bad thing.
Mark Zuckerberg likes to pretend that he is a rebel and makes a virtue of tielessness so he always wears a tee shirt, unless he is taking to politicians and is obviously in trouble. Sir Alex Ferguson, on the other hand, was always seen with a club tie when he was representing Manchester United and managing the team to glory. He was a big spender, although it was not his own money he was parting with when singing players. Yet, when he was interviewed for a profile in The Times newspaper, he was photographed at home with an open-necked shirt. Somehow you could not imagine Sir Matt Busby doing the same. Jose Mourinho used to wear the Chelsea tie but did not at United and stood on the touchline with an open-necked shirt. Likewise, Prince Charles, who comes from an older more formal generation, is rarely seen tieless in public while his sons usually are, William wearing an open-necked shirt when he takes his children to school.
That seems to be the fashion today, a smart suit and shirt but no tie. Let us stick to the basics and do away with all unnecessary items if we want to be taken seriously seems to be the message. If you have to wear a tie, the way you do so sends out a signal. Leaving it loose around your neck shows that you are in but not of the establishment. In films actors adopt this style to show they are portraying someone working inside the system who is nevertheless naturally rebellious. Although they have to hold down a job and wear the uniform, they have not fully given in to the tyranny of conformity. Billy Crudup tried this in the film Jackie when he portrayed the journalist but it seemed wrong to me. The real Jackie Kennedy was impeccably stylish and would never have tolerated a man wearing his tie so sloppily. Similarly Robert Redford does this in his film The Old Man and the Gun in which he portrays a compulsive but kindly bank-robber who uses an unthreatening method to grab the loot, with the tie done up properly when he is robbing but left loose when he is off duty. This does not quite work for me, the character he is portraying being an exploiter of the system rather than a rebel within it - but we get the point. The suit and tie are a uniform not an expression of who he really is.
One of my sisters-in-law says that, if you are going to wear a tie, you should at least do it up properly. I agree with her. However, I do have to leave the top button undone when wearing one. I have a rather thick neck and, in order to wear a ready-made shirt of the correct size for the rest of my torso, I find the collar uncomfortably tight if it is done up. To compensate for this, I tie a Windsor knot which is wider and hides the undone button. Ian Fleming wrote that his hero James Bond thought that the Windsor knot was the mark of a ‘cad’ (the last time I can remember that word being used without irony) but I disagree. I think it is the one useful and worthwhile thing that frivolous and self-important man did for the world, giving us the thick-necked men a way of wearing what is really a totally unnecessary item of male clothing.
