The Ties that Bind

The pandemic did nothing to help neckwear

This is an entry in the occasional series of Timeless & Timely called Classic Style, now running under the

Classy AF

newsletter banner.

You’ve probably spent more time than usual in some sort of comfort wear during the pandemic.

Sweats, yoga pants, shorts, maybe even pajamas. Because, let’s face it — other than Zoom calls from the shoulders up, no one was seeing your outfit.

While this was incredibly freeing, it was also kind of sad. It removed that sense of personal style and pride that accompanies commuting to an office to interact with other grown-ups.

Ties have long been part of men’s wardrobes. I won’t go into the history, but they’ve managed to stay around for hundreds of years.

With the advent of the pandemic, I suspected we’d see ties (and suits) fade into oblivion, as the world readjusted itself to more casual expectations.

So I found it intriguing that when The Wall Street Journal ran an article questioning whether ties are really dead, they included a number of men who said they’d still …