Following the example of Samuel Beckett, I've been watching a lot of televised tennis (the Australian Open). Which means I've also been watching a lot of commercials. One in particular has caught my eye. It's for some sort of credit card, and features Alec Baldwin playing two parts. In this particular one, the first Alec Baldwin cuts off the bottom of the second Alec Baldwin's tie and says derisively: "Flat tie. What are we, in prep school?"
I own over 50 flat ties - I prefer to call them Roosters - and I've never associated them with prep school, maybe because I attended public school. I wear them because I find their thin shapes becoming and their horizontal stripes aesthetically pleasing. Now that thin ties are back, I keep wondering why nobody takes the next logical step and flattens the bottom and levels the diagonal stripes. At the same time, I'm rather happy that they don't.
Years ago I attended a reading at a bookstore in Salt Lake City at which the author - a hip young nature writer - wore an exquisite Rooster with variously sized stripes in varying shades of pink. After his reading I complimented him on his tie and, taken aback, he said: "It's the only tie I own." This was disappointing; I had imagined him going through his collection and picking out just the right shade for a literary soiree. And it was also a bit frustrating, seeing such a beautiful Rooster worn by someone with no appreciation of it. I felt like asking him if I could have it.
In most cases (i.e., mine), wearing a square-bottomed tie is a sign of perseverance. They are not sold in contemporary clothing stores (except, sometimes, the thick, solid-colored knit ones, which are to the delicately-striped Rooster what a brownie is to a mille-feuille). You have to hunt for them in vintage clothing stores and consignment shops and Goodwill centers. All of which are in neighborhoods far removed from prep schools.
Comment feed for this post