The Style Guy: sartorial suggestions for your situation

Dear Style Guy:

What’s your view on neckties? Are you seeing a trend towards one style or another? Do you think the bowtie – so popular with many bands all over the world for many decades – will ever come back?

Yours truly,

Knot Tieler

Thanks for this, KT. It is time to talk again about ties. Let me first put the bowtie question to rest: No. Bowties will never return to pipe bands, at least not in my lifetime. I’m pretty sure the big red bozo bowties that City of Victoria wore in the 1970s killed off the trend altogether.

You might be surprised by my other thought on neckties. I think it’s time for pipe bands and solo players to relax the “rules,” and drop them completely. That’s right – open neck. Tieless. Shed that noose! I mean, ties have pretty much died a death in the workplace anyway, so why do we pipers and drummers still wear them, especially when so many of us compete and perform in hot climates? Like trews, army uniforms of the past made for tropical and desert situations had soldiers go without a tie and, guess what, no one died! Well, actually, lots of soldiers died, but not from not wearing tie. Let’s relax in these casual-dress times, and untie the tie once in a while.

Do you have a question for The Style Guy about piping and drumming dress? Just send him an email message and he’ll be pleased to include your question of confusion in his next column. Until then, dress on!