Neckwear and me

I wear bow ties.

Almost exclusively, as a matter of fact. They are, ounce-for-ounce, infinitely more interesting than cravat-style neckties. They're also harder to tie, so you get a feeling of accomplishment that the four-in-hand knot doesn't provide. They are also distinctive. At my job this summer, in downtown Indianapolis - but I won't say where, my predilection for bow ties earned me some small renown in my building. Of course, one doesn't wear them out of ego, but rather out of an earnest desire to look dapper and to master an art from a bygone time.

Lest I give one of my more devoted readers ammunition with which to attack my private disgust at fashion, I won't tell you all the places whence I get my ties. Let me say, though, that you'd be surprised who still makes them. And how hard they make them to find. However, I will say - for conservative styles - Brooks Brothers is the place to go. Unless you're a devotee or the son of a former chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, you'll find all your needs filled there.

Here, also, is an article - from earlier this summer - about the resurgence of the bow tie. Yes, I want to tell the author, bow ties are "hot." Not because you say they are, but because they speak to a time in fashion when Milan and Paris didn't exercise a total hegemony over fashion. A time when conservative style for men was the norm - and the clothes that some men wear today would have been grounds for a solid thrashing at the club. Verbal or otherwise.

Don't say I never addressed fashion; I just knew that my attitudes are suitably antediluvian.