The Necktie Is Making an Office Comeback
A new generation is tweaking the power tie by making it rebellious or feminine
By Callum Borchers
Dec. 4, 2024 9:00 pm ET
Source: The WSJ
The boss wears a hoodie. The intern wears a necktie. For those who spent years, even decades, with silk knots around their necks, the business-casual movement has been a breath of fresh air, literally.
But for those professionals never subjected to stuffy dress codes, transitioning from college campuses to nearly-as-informal workplaces can feel like missing a rite of passage. Some 20-somethings are embracing the necktie to project gravitas and show personality with a pattern or pop of color. Women are getting in on the tie renaissance, too, saying it helps command a room.
Ryan Klein, 21, sported a suit and tie daily as a Republican congressional intern the past two summers. The senior at Pennsylvania State University reached back in time for hand-me-down neckties his great-grandfather wore from the 1940s to 1960s, plus a few new purchases.
Often Klein was more decked-out than lawmakers and senior aides. In a suit and tie, Ryan Klein sometimes dressed more formally as a congressional intern than lawmakers and senior aides.
He was surprised, during one of his first weeks on Capitol Hill last year, when House and Senate leaders wore dress sneakers to a meeting in the Oval Office. Then he remembered a viral photo of open-collared world leaders at a G-7 summit in 2022. Dressing down is now the norm, he realized, even at the highest echelons of power.
That may change as President-elect Donald Trump and his signature shiny neckties return to Washington. Klein admires Trump’s business-formal look because it conveys seriousness about the job, he says. But he wears ties mostly because of how they make him feel.
“It gets me in that mindset of, ‘Hey, I’m going to do something professional today,’” says Klein, who plans to work in Washington after graduating in six months.
Neckties may never regain prepandemic levels of popularity, but sales data show signs of resurgence. After tumbling to $61.4 million in 2020, U.S. tie imports rebounded to $106 million by 2022, according to the most recent data from trade-tracking website Observatory of Economic Complexity.
Tie on neck, tongue in cheek
Much of Wall Street has officially been tie-optional for almost a decade. JPMorgan Chase was among the first to codify a business-casual dress code in 2016. Other firms followed suit. Nevertheless, associates often get the hint that they’re still expected to wear suits and ties, says David Murray, co-founder of New York City menswear store Grey Clothiers. The young employees conform…sort of.
Perhaps you’ve seen men in their 20s whose suits appear borrowed from someone twice their size. It isn’t bad tailoring; it’s intentional. “The Gen Z guys are doing it in a fashion-forward way, where the suit doesn’t fit in the proper sense and they’ve got a big, funky tie,” Murray told me.
I thought of how millennial hipsters wryly adopted fedoras and tortoiseshell glasses. Is the next generation wearing neckties ironically? “A hundred percent,” according to Murray. Several young men and women who don ties confirmed that half the fun is subverting an old symbol of masculine status. They relish tweaking the power tie by wearing it rebelliously or making it feminine.
Women in Windsors
Ami Vyas started borrowing her husband’s ties about a year ago as an experiment. A relationship manager at Canadian Western Bank, she wondered if her clients—mostly men, all with at least $750,000 of investible assets—would treat her differently in meetings.
Vyas, 35, reports an uptick in follow-up calls from people seeking her input on real-estate purchases or business transactions. She can’t prove it was the ties that imbued her with an air of authority, but she’s purchased several of her own from Banana Republic and Shein. She now wears a necktie to work about once a week. “I’ll incorporate a tie into my outfit when I have internal meetings with executives or maybe a client that could refer me to another high-net-worth client,” she says.
I noticed NBC’s Maria Taylor wearing a Prada tie on “Sunday Night Football” a few weeks ago and subsequently learned ties for women are on-trend this fall. (Thank you, Fashion and Elle magazines, for the education.) Ties work for celebrities and 9-to-5 women alike because you don’t need to be a certain age or body type to pull them off, says Danyela Schupak, a New York real-estate agent who puts on a tie once or twice a week. She describes herself as a conservative dresser who adds one bold accessory to an otherwise tame outfit, not the corporate crop-top type. Attention-getting neckties are now in her rotation of statement pieces, along with shoes and jewelry.
“The first reason I wear them is for people to comment, which starts a conversation and leads to networking for my business,” says Schupak, 51. “And the second reason is, I feel powerful when I wear a tie.”
Nancy Berman, a member of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, has worn her own line of neckties to meetings in Washington. One of her favorites is a crystal-studded tie from fashion startup Nandanie that cost about $250. The brand’s founder, Nancy Berman, is a presidential appointee to the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad who wore ties for two days of meetings in Washington recently.
“When you walk into a room and you’ve got on a tie, like a man might do, you’re making a statement: I’m here to be taken seriously,” she says.
Get into groups of 2.
Answer the following questions based on Callum Borchers’ article: “The Necktie Is Making an Office Comeback”. For each answer, provide as many details as possible and indicate where in the article, the answer can be found.
- What is the main topic of the article?
- Why are some young professionals embracing neckties?
- Who is also adopting neckties in the workplace, and why?
- What was Ryan Klein’s experience when he started working as a congressional intern?
- According to the article, what might change with President-elect Donald Trump returning to Washington?
- What do some young professionals think about wearing ties?
- Why does Danyela Schupak wear attention-getting neckties?
- What did Nancy Berman wear to her meetings in Washington recently?
Each team will choose a topic and will present arguments FOR or AGAINST.
- Workplace Dress Codes:
The changing trends in workplace attire have had a positive impact on employee morale, productivity, and corporate culture, by managing to balance professionalism with comfort and creativity - Women in Leadership Roles:
Dressing for business is the main way women have successfully overcome challenges they face when in leadership positions. - Personal Branding:
Dressing for business helps open the door to career success, by building one’s personal brand. - Fashion and the Workplace:
In addition to helping balance fashion and professionalism, fashion encourages self-expression, confidence, and serves to foster success in the workplace.