The Tie
Formal wear in general, and especially the necktie has had some rough years. Some would even argue decades of a steady decline, but things became even worse in the early 2000’s. The rise of the tech industry wasn’t helping much, and Mark Zuckerberg’s hoodie didn’t do us any favours. This eventually led to the firms financing (and making money from) tech also changing and relaxing their dress codes. Investment banks like JP Morgan, back in 2016, and Goldman Sachs, with their DJ’ing Chief Executive David Solomon, followed suit in 2019. Their 36,000 employees no longer need to wear a suit and tie or dress to work. In February 2020 the biggest ‘changemaker’ arrived; COVID-19 seemed like the final endpoint for formal wear and especially neckties. We were stuck ‘working from home’ and every formal event or gathering were cancelled indefinitely. Athleisure, which had already been in vouge among the younger generation became the norm for all. More precise, a washed-and-worn out version of athleisure: us Norwegians now wore the same clothing that we previously would only wear in our cabins during weekends and holidays, all week long and during office hours. In Norway we even took the concept of ‘home office’ to the next level and invented the concept ‘cabin office’. Good broadband infrastructure, and cabins with every facility made it possible to move the office to the mountains. Even our top politicians did it and held press conferences from their ‘home away from home’. Not a necktie or a white shirt in sight!
But now, at the beginning of the 2024 something is happening. People are talking about how to dress in a professional setting again, and they are talking about the tie. Back in January NRK reported that there were: “strong forces that wanted ‘obligatory necktie’ at the Parliament” because the politicians dress-sense were not at the same level as the job and responsibility they held. In February, Andreas Feet (well-dressed guy, shirt maker and tailor) wrote a chronicle that was also published at NRK, titled “Clothing guide for politicians”, where he made several good points about dressing for the job and dressing proper. The text got a lot of attention, and Feet even got to discuss how to dress at ‘Dagsnytt 18’, reaching hundreds of thousands og viewers and listeners. The tie has not had this kind of attention in Norway since the late 1960’s, when there was a big debate about obligatory tie rules and ‘slipstvang’ at Oslo restaurants.
There is movement internationally as well – This years’ Academy Awards ceremony got some tie-attention due to the fact that no one was wearing one. The Oscar Gala, in the top five of black-tie events in the world, had all the stars attending in tuxedoes without ties. Not a good formal look. The only talent that dressed properly for the occasion was Messi, the star (dog) from the movie Anatomy of a Fall. Earlier this year, in February, Simon Crompton (a Cavour favourite) published a text at his website called “When to wear a tie”, which has relevant points on the subject and worth a read. The Guardian published an article titled "Get knotted: ties get a rebrand as they bring formal fun for men and women”, about how the awards season have shown that among the younger generation the tie is back. My all-time favourite red-carpet look even gets a mention: Julia Roberts at the Golden Globes in the 1990’s – Suit and tie worn just right, in my opinion. The article makes several good points, but it is GQ’s style editor Yang-Yi Goh’s quote that says it best: “The right tie is the thing that takes a look from good to great”.
Even though the necktie seems to be off to a good start in 2024, nobody is forcing you to wear a tie on a daily basis. Nobody is forcing you to wear one, period. But you still have to ask yourself the important question: Do I want to look good, or do I want to look great?