Fashion writers are committing professional suicide if they say that the wearing of ties is dying out. That is the opinion of Mr William Hirsch, chairman of the Tie Manufacturers Association.
The tie manufacturers do not agree that men are discarding their ties (surprise). They say that sales are increasing because in time of stress men do not jump out of windows any more, they buy a tie.
The Association put an advertisement in The Times asking for observations on ties. Half of their respondents inferred a sexual mystique in the wearing of a tie. A lady from Hampstead said: “A man taking off his tie is performing an extremely erotic act”; a clergyman claimed that if he wore a pink silk tie at a function it “captured the attention of the ladies and made the men uneasy”; another clergyman wore coloured ties to correspond with the ecclesiastical calendar: a red one at Whitsun, bright ones after Easter and Christmas, and a dark one during Lent.
The high proportion of churchmen replying to the ad seems to indicate that they are very tie conscious, possibly because they cannot wear one during working hours.
This year ties are going to be more adventurous with geometric designs and bright colours. At a reception given to launch the new designs the representatives of the tie manufacturers could be easily picked out from the sombre suicidal journalists by their dazzling neckwear flashing like prayer flags in the Himalayas. There are also going to be more pictorial ties on sale, we will have a choice of vintage cars, Grecian goddesses and scenes which would be more at home on kitchen wallpaper. Widths are all about 4in. to 4 1/2 in. and knots are big and floppy.
This year the tie manufacturers are trying to live up to Mr Hirsch’s drum banging philosophy that the new ties “will be the smile in a man’s wardrobe” so if your wardrobe splits asunder with hysterical laughter, then you’ve bought too many.
This is an edited extract
