He showers, shaves, dons crisp shirt and well-tailored suit. Then he places a noose around his neck and tightens it.
No--he's not committing sartorial suicide. He's putting on a necktie.
Why? A seemingly useless strip of cloth tied around the neck of virtually every man in the commercial and professional arenas of the modern Western world. For what purpose? For what reason? And when, where, and how did it start?
The origins of the necktie go back in Western civilization only about 300 years. Neckwear for men, as we think of it today, didn't make much of an appearance until the beginning of the eighteenth century, with a few versions showing up around selected necks at the end of the seventeenth. Fashion has always reflected its time ... the social, political, economic, and technological currents of the day. And the 1700s brought many of the most radical changes in our world, capped by England's loss of the American colonies, and the French Revolution. Until then, Paris had led the trends in fashion for both men and women, stressing elegance, and not function, and favoring delicate silks, laces, pale pastels, and flower motifs.
But in the eighteenth century, mechanization of many functions had begun. Weaving, dyeing, spinning--previously done by hand at home--began to be commercially produced. A new prosperous middle class was born out of industrialization and foreign trade. The manufacture of clothing, plus the ideals of democracy launched by the French and American revolutions, supplanted aristocratic, ornate fashion. In its place, a new style of simplicity and function was reflected in the growing preference by men for dark suits made of serviceable materials.
This was all well and good. But it didn't quell the instinct of every man to stand out, to enhance his appearance and personality, to be unique. Yes ... "Power dressing" goes way back. So to offset or highlight the more tailored styles, men's neckwear began to flourish. Most often called a cravat--the French word for necktie, the adoption of which into English showed the Paris influence on fashion--eighteenth century neckwear was a band of linen or lawn tied loosely under the chin, with lace, tasseled, or beaded ends. Neckwear was often styled to set off elaborate men's wigs, as with stocks ... high, stiff collars buckled or hooked in back, over which "solitaires"--broad black ribbons--were tied. Stocks often showed off lace-front shirts and were frequently fastened with jeweled buckles, which didn't show, but which probably did much for the more affluent man's sense of status.
There was another, more practical consideration addressed by neckwear, important as men's fashion became available to a wider consuming class and men led busier, more demanding lives: ring around the collar! Fashion was within the reach of more men, fewer of whom had armies of servants to keep their wardrobes in shape. Neither had they yet acquired a nationally advertised liquid detergent to rub into their collars, or developed facilities for daily showers (or, perhaps, even weekly baths). So their necks got dirty. It was far easier to wash a cravat or stock than to launder an entire outfit, and neckwear protected shirt and suit from soil.
As the eighteenth century approached its close and
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