I miss ties

I watched the movie In the Mood for Love tonight (aka Fa yeung nin wa), written and directed by Kar Wai Wong. It’s a wonderful movie but I have to be honest, the first thing that struck me about the movie was actor Tony Leung’s tie. (Yes, he wore several but one in particular caught my attention.)

You can sort of get a sense for it in this picture – this is the tie. But the image, the lighting, the blue shirt … it doesn’t quite come across. But early in the film you get a quick glance of it and from that moment I was hooked. I wanted that tie.

But more than that, I wanted a reason to wear ties again. I’ve got a drawer full of them and I probably haven’t worn one for ten years. (Drawers are not the best places to keep ties, by the way, but when you aren’t wearing them I suppose it doesn’t matter.)

It seems that now you can go to work – go anywhere – in your pajamas and it’s just a kind of fashion statement – “business casual” as they were calling it a few years ago.

I really only have two kinds of fashion that I like. One of these is really, really casual – denim and collarless shirts. The other is sport jacket (or suit) and tie. Way back in high school (a Catholic all boys high school) I had to wear a sport jacket and tie every day. I grew to really like sports jackets and ties.

There’s just no reason to wear them anymore!

The one look I can’t stand – in fact, I absolutely hate – is golf course polo shirt and khaki coloured pants. I don’t know why, but that look just sends me screaming.

But my point here is that I miss wearing ties. I miss having them done up tight in a four-in-hand knot, or half-Windsor, and I miss having them loosened at the collar with that top button undone, like Humphrey Bogart at the end of the day twisting the top off a bottle of good whiskey.

Can’t we start wearing ties again? I’m certain that if we did I’d start paying more attention to my appearance, as opposed to these days when I seem to be mostly, “Ah, who gives a shit anyway?”

(Let me also add, not that anyone would care, that what I really like are retro ties. One of the things I liked about In the Mood for Love is that it is set largely in Hong Kong, 1962 so the ties had a definite period feel to them.)

Tags: Neckties, Ties, In the Mood for Love