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Male Fashion Advice @lemmy.world

Why don't we see more white ties being worn by men? I feel they can easily be styled to be casual, but seems like it's rarely/never done.

24 comments
  • The white tie is a social symbol of surrender! /s

    (I'm not really sure why, but I don't see anyone wearing them around here either.)

  • "Your tie should always be darker than your shirt." is the typical rule. With that in mind, most dress shirts are white, pale blue, or pastel. So there is very little use cases for a white long tie. This does change for "White tie dress" which is a totally different discussion

    • Interesting, haven't heard this rule before. This must be it then as nothing is lighter than white.

  • @Jilanico

    "white tie" is a distinct dress code involving a white bowtie. Outside of that, there's no real history of people wearing white neckwear. This is for a few reasons:

    1. The purpose of a tie in an outfit is generally to bring in new colors and textures. A white cotton shirt, a dark worsted wool suit, and a bright colorful tie with a silky sheen and intricate pattern... There's a whole history around the British falling in love with paisley and using it as a display of wealth.
    • @Jilanico

      1. It's very hard to dye silk white (or at least it was, historically). The bowtie in white tie is marcella cotton.
      2. White shirts are the most common. A white necktie would have been hard to pair with most wardrobes, more likely to get dirty (you don't want to have to get your tie cleaned, it's a whole thing).
      • @Jilanico

        1. People generally like to layer darker layers over lighter layers. It's not, as the other user suggested, a "rule," it's just a good approach to layering different colors. You put on a shirt, then a tie, then a jacket—white, color, dark—and it'll probably work. The other way around doesn't work nearly as consistently.

        (I tried posting this from kbin, but apparently lemmy.world defederated with them...)

  • It's a hallmark of one of two distinct styles - 80s New Wave (bonus marks for piano key print along one edge), and cheesy gangster. There is no use case for a long white tie outside those two scenarios.

24 comments