The Ties that Bind

"Besides looking better, well-dressed men often think better. Keats, in a famous letter, described his habit of gussying up when he felt down: 'Whenever I find myself growing vapourish, I rouse myself, wash and put on a clean shirt brush my hair and clothes, tie my shoestrings neatly and in fact adonize as I were going out—then all clean and comfortable I sit down to write. This I find the greatest relief.'
"I feel you, dog."

In the Los Angeles Times's West magazine, J.R. Moehringer laments the waning of the necktie.


"Necktie sales may have foundered in the decade or more since the words 'casual Friday' entered men’s vocabularies, but in the last year or two, stylish men in their 20s and early 30s have embraced the old four-in-hand as a style statement—that is, as long as it is an optional one."

But David Colman in The New York Times claims that neckties are poised for a comeback.