When Ray Smith wrote his Wall Street Journal article on the dissolution of the "Men's Dress Furnishings Association" it sounded more like an obituary for the tie.
I did not not weep.
Gerald Anderson, former head of the trade organization that dissolved when membership dropped from 120 in the 80's down to just 25 this year, says changes in the industry led to the organization's end, not the end of the tie, but less than 6% of men in a Gallup survey said they wear a tie to work everyday, down from only 10% in 2002.
So is the tie dead? I doubt it. Anderson pointed out in an NPR interview that the next generation will probably wear them more than the boomers just to be different from them. After all, no one wants to dress like their dad. Boomer dads dress more like Jimmy Buffet than Warren Buffet and since Warren has achieved rock star popularity, who knows?
What I know is that my sense of fashion, or lack thereof, comes from comfort and utility, and other than occasionally using my tie to clean my glasses, that particular piece of accessory serves NO frigging purpose. Andt hey sure and hell aren't comfortable.
I used to playfully criticize women in general for putting up with ridiculous, sexist, and antiquated dress codes that required hose, yet men have put up with spoken or unspoken tie requirements right along with them. When I taught in the classroom, I always said my students wouldn't fall for a tie in place of my sincerity or dedication. I still believe that, though I wore a tie almost every day that I taught... it wasn't for the students... it was for the folks who, by and large, didn't matter now that I think about it.
If the downfall of this organization correlates at all with the demise of the tie itself, it will be a better world for it. We can keep them in our closets for old time sake, and break them out when we feel like being goofy... or when we're too lazy to act in ways that ties are supposed to represent, but let's hope the days of HAVING to wear them are gone. Who's with me?!
I don't suppose ritually burning ties would pick up the same momentum or interest as buring bras, eh?
Luth
5 comments:
Luth, mark your calendar. I can't find one thing in this post to disagree with. I'm with you on this one. I stopped wearing ties to work every day over 10 years ago. Here I am a Director of HR and today I'm wearing jeans, polo shirt and cowboy boots. Not bad for a conservative working in the high tech industry in NY, huh?
I could have sworn that happened at least once before. It can't be that unlikely in five years!
Here's an interesting take by a lawyer who blogs on HR legal matters. http://hrheroblogs.com/theword/2008/06/20/sartorial-suicide/#more-704
Yeah, I checked it out and left a comment to this effect:
Screw ties! Work should be about performance, not appearance... that'd solve the sexism issue too.
I probably shouldn't have done that... I probably shouldn't have visited that blog. As I exited out after seeing my typos in the comment, I felt like I was sneaking out of the country club through the service entrance! (and I would have felt like that no matter how I was dressed)
That was good. Phillips is a staid corporate lawyer and a Southern gentleman and you tweaked him. He actually gave you a good response. Here's a quote.
"Rightly or wrongly, clothes still make the man or woman in our society. If that weren’t the case, we would have more nudists I suspect."
He goes on to comment about how some same sex schools require uniforms and that can be a good thing.
The best part of your response was the typos especially you are/were and English teacher.
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