Today there are only about two-dozen companies making ties in the US, and the business is dominated by huge firms. Many of the ties American men wear are made overseas. It didn’t seem to make any sense to keep running an association built for an industry so fundamentally different from what it used to be, says Terrill, the neckwear business executive and a member of the association’s board.
“We didn’t think anybody would notice,’’ he says, of the decision to close.
Instead, the association’s closure has been greeted as confirmation that the tie is done.
The suggestion alarms Terrill, who says that sales have steadied and ties are poised to make a modest comeback.
There are still a few islands of tie-wearers. Lawyers and folks in finance and insurance work in offices where suits and tie remain the badges of professionalism.
“When you wear a tie it still says ... you’re dressed for the occasion,’’ says Amy Klaris, a retail strategist at consulting firm Kurt Salmon Associates.
Today, with the economy softening, men need to market themselves and a big part of that is the way they dress. That will send the pendulum swinging, albeit subtly, back to the suit and tie, Terrill says.
In the past 10 years or 15 years, as dress codes loosened, men who’d always worn ties “were making a statement. I’m not going to wear a tie because I don’t have to wear a tie,” Terrill says. “But now so many people don’t wear a tie, that it’s a statement to wear one.’’
That sounds like wishful thinking to Corlett, the consultant. She agrees that sales of ties have leveled off, but a comeback is unlikely.
“I think it’s about as untrue as women returning to hosiery.
“Once you free the body of the tie and the hose, yeah, you may go back to it occasionally to make a statement or on dress-up day, but nobody willingly goes back to wearing a tie five days a week,’’ she says.
For those waiting to see if men will once again embrace the constriction that comes with ties, she suggests looking to examples in women’s fashion.
“You know,’’ she says, “corsets never came back.”
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