"Most men wear bow ties because most other men don't." - Can't remember who said that & it comes from an English POV, but it feeds into the comments above I think. It's a deliberately 'different' tie, is it not?
I guess the daytime bow tie fell from grace in England at some point... Post war? And yet not in the US. - I bet there's some sort of cultural thesis in that somewhere!

The only place I've ever seen bowties worn with any frequency is in the southern U.S. The line in the sand is drawn there, although there are certain professions that seem to have a weakness for it.

jack_sparrow wrote:

I think the Southern US is like Northern England - Things linger longer there.
Is it because they are (miles) away from where the action is, baby! Or just because they are provincial and tend to be mistrustful of moving forward?

You know, small 'c' conservatives and all that.

???

j.

(OK - Yes. This is a troll post. Happy now?)

I've always thought some of the Southerners were among the most "gentile". Of course, it's all antebellum nostalgia, but there it is.

Everyone drinks with straws and the men wear white suits.

Incroyable wrote:

jack_sparrow wrote:

I think the Southern US is like Northern England - Things linger longer there.
Is it because they are (miles) away from where the action is, baby! Or just because they are provincial and tend to be mistrustful of moving forward?

You know, small 'c' conservatives and all that.

???

j.

(OK - Yes. This is a troll post. Happy now?)

I've always thought some of the Southerners were among the most "gentile". Of course, it's all antebellum nostalgia, but there it is.

Everyone drinks with straws and the men wear white suits.

Unlike Northern England then after all. Manchester has some really kosher guys who know cut & cloth without even looking at it. And then there's Yorkshire...
For us Southerners - a big shout out to Stamford Hill!
" I'm not so much a Yid. I'm more Yid-ish..."

j.

suds-okeefe wrote:

Hardly ever see a gent sporting a bowtie these days. It can make you stand out in a bad way if you can't carry it off.

Well no one's ever laughed or even looked at me strange the couple of times I did wear my one and only bow tie.  But how do you know if you - can - pull it off?

I would never wear a bow tie.  On my frame, it would look ridiculous.

I doubt people take seriosusly the wearers of bow ties.  What exactly do women think about bow ties?  I would be interested to know.

Does wearing a bow tie 'always' make a statement?

Was there a time in the last 75 years when the bowtie was considered no different a choice than the four in hand one?

There is so much confusion about how men should approach clothing that the bowtie may be close to a counter culture tool. Men are interested in clothes but they have to pretend they arent, so they flock to labels to be different but end up the same but it's alright because the designers know better and at least it involves money/success which absolves just about anything here. Taste and individuality need to be handled carefully and with supreme confidence. I have mentioned that even when I think I am wearing my dullest things, I get sniffed out as interested in clothing; probably not a good thing.



It would be interesting to get results of how people react to a bowtie wearer.

On the few occasions I have met with someone Id never met before who was wearing one, i admit I found it odd enough to be a disruption which can be a positive or a negative depending on what's taking place in the meeting. I cant easily express what was going through my mind about one particular wearer's bowtie but it wasnt good. It's unfortunate because he was well dressed and I shouldve given him points both for that and his independent stance in wearing a bowtie but i didnt. In fact, I had serious issues about his authority, something along the lines of an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks...

jack_sparrow wrote:

Purely a POV from England (& when I say that I mean London):

The guy in the bow tie in England these days  is making a point.

And so we ask ourselves 'Why?'

And the answer is never very favourable to the bow tie wearer.

Is this different in the mainstream US?

Don't you see the guy in the bow as 'pushing it a little' and being a bore?

If not the UK & US are really far apart on this one. It must be cultural & worthy of some sort of study. Maybe?


j.

Wearing a suit and tie in general, even downtown, is not mainstream anymore.  In many cases, just being dressed in a suit n tie is pushing it.  God forbid a man should wear a suit n tie and a pocket square.  That pushes him to being either gay or dandy or both - either way out of the mainstream.

Trad to the Bone wrote:

mike wrote:

jack_sparrow wrote:

Purely a POV from England (& when I say that I mean London):

The guy in the bow tie in England these days  is making a point.

And so we ask ourselves 'Why?'

And the answer is never very favourable to the bow tie wearer.

Is this different in the mainstream US?

Don't you see the guy in the bow as 'pushing it a little' and being a bore?

If not the UK & US are really far apart on this one. It must be cultural & worthy of some sort of study. Maybe?


j.

Wearing a suit and tie in general, even downtown, is not mainstream anymore.  In many cases, just being dressed in a suit n tie is pushing it.  God forbid a man should wear a suit n tie and a pocket square.  That pushes him to being either gay or dandy or both - either way out of the mainstream.

Oh please.  Where are you writing from?  That is 100% not the case in the downtowns of most major US cities.  Especially in the Bos-Wash Megalopolis. 

And Jack, by "mainstream", do you mean in a tiny town in Iowa?  Or on Connecticut Ave, NW?  The former, you are probably right, the answer is not favorable to the wearer.  In Washington, you are wrong, and aparently there is a difference between the UK and US.

TB

Suits are not very common in the downtowns of the great midwest of this country.  Most banks and law firms are business casual.  Perhaps the east coast is more formal.  I didn't mean suits are viewed as something unusal - just not every day wear.

Arthur wrote:

The US is too big to make generalizations.

  If I wore one in Wichita, I would likely be beaten and/or killed.

Surely, you jest?

thecubicrube wrote:

jack_sparrow wrote:

Purely a POV from England (& when I say that I mean London):

If not the UK & US are really far apart on this one. It must be cultural & worthy of some sort of study. Maybe?
j.

I'll be blunter, an older person wearing a bow tie around London would be perceived to be eccentric, a younger man wearing a Squire-style bow tie around London would be perceived to be a knob.

Ol Chums,

Times change.  This UK bow tie wearer may have been eccentric but he was no knob.

http://www.4to40.com/images/legends/win … rchill.jpg

Cheers,
Trip