Between the ages of 11 and 16, I wore a tie every school day. The thick, shiny bottle-green and gold-striped style was the bane of my teenage existence: a stuffy symbol of repression and tool for stifling my creative expression.
Yet here I am, some 15 years later, choosing to wear a not dissimilar chocolate brown and blue-striped tie to London Fashion Week. No longer tainted by its association with corporate drudgery, the tie has become the ultimate cool-girl accessory – see Billie Eilish, who regularly sports an oversized shirt and tie combo, and Michelle Pfeiffer in the current Saint Laurent campaign. Actor Ayo Edebiri also championed the look at this year’s Golden Globes when she wore an oversized grey Loewe suit and gold feather tie that riffed on Julia Roberts’ Armani menswear ensemble at the 1990 awards ceremony.
On the catwalks, ties have been making a quiet comeback ever since Louis Vuitton’s Nicolas Ghesquière sent models down the AW22 runway wearing preppy striped and floral iterations. But the trend reached its apex last September when Saint Laurent opened with a salvo of power suits and ties. Now it has reached critical mass: Emporio Armani and Andreas Kronthaler’s Vivienne Westwood both made a case for the necktie in their latest AW25 shows, while showgoers from New York to Paris have been seen in the workwear staple.
“If I’m just in a collared shirt and pair of trousers, it’s a bit boring, but when I add a tie, it immediately looks more elevated,” says Arooj Aftab. The cultural inclusion consultant and curator, 29, has long been a devotee of a colourful tie, alternating between a red tartan Vivienne Westwood style and a vintage jewel-toned purple tie pinched from her dad. “I’ve always worn clothes that are a bit oversized because I have a condition called neurofibromatosis where the left side of my body is slightly disfigured, so I feel like a tie adds structure to my look,” says Aftab, who wears one with everything from pilot bombers and leather jackets to smart tailoring. “I think it gives a sense of power and confidence. It’s become a staple piece – a bit of a shield”.
For the buyer and vintage dealer Liberty Joy, 22, who wears a two-piece suit and neckwear most days, a tie adds a bit of personality. “I just think they make an outfit look complete,” says Joy, who has “about 50” in her personal collection, ranging from elegant houndstooth and knitted ties to novelty styles emblazoned with Tom & Jerry motifs. Ties are also the bestselling category in her London shop, Liberty Joy Archive. “People love them,” she says. “I think you can wear just about anything, and a tie makes the outfit more sophisticated – or, if it’s a Looney Tunes tie, more fun,” she says.
As another long-time suit wearer, Jane McFarland, Grazia’s associate editor, loves the tie’s versatility. “I usually buy vintage men’s ties off eBay (Valentino is my favourite) or second-hand sites. I’ve found them an easy way to add some colour or print to pared-back tailoring,” she says. “I also don’t wear much in terms of jewellery during the day so find a tie does the same job.”
It’s not just women who are rediscovering the appeal of the necktie. As the item has fallen out of favour in the workplace, a clutch of younger men are re-appropriating the Wall Street relic as a bold fashion statement. At London Fashion week, musician and model Wilfred Cisse was seen wearing a red paisley patterned tie with a tailored jacket while stylist Peter Bevan layered a geometric style over clashing striped shirts. “It makes a suit look less corporate and gives you a bit more of a rock ‘n’ roll, Jarvis Cocker vibe,” says London-based designer Lauren Perrin, whose playful tartan and leopard-print styles are popular with Gen Z men (£85, laurenperrin.com).
As for how to wear them? “I tend to keep my tie loosely knotted, leaving my shirt top button undone, so it doesn’t veer too much into school uniform territory,” says McFarland. I would personally draw a line at styling them with T-shirts, unless you are going for Avril Lavigne c2002 MTV Music Awards. Or, for a subtle way to dip into the trend, you could try a shirt with an integrated tie, such as New York label Kallmeyer’s striped button-down with matching tie (£355, kallmeyer.nyc).
But remember that not all ties are created equal. “The fabric and the length can make a big difference,” says Joy. “Sometimes a tie can be quite shiny and then it looks a bit cheap.” The width is also crucial, says Perrin. “I always prefer a tie that is a bit thinner than one that’s too large – otherwise it starts to give Donald Trump.”