So I decided not to wear a tie to work today and was told that there was a dress code and to wear one tomorrow. I kind of guessed that was the dress code, I had done it every day except for Fridays (I correctly assumed casual Fridays were the norm), but I never really knew. No one ever told me, specifically. So now I'm walking around thinking everyone is looking at me like I'm a rebel greaser or something.
But I'm not.
The whole communications aspect of all this seems important enough to warrant some words, but I don't feel like it. Suffice to say that here in corporate america people just like to let you assume things instead of telling you how and why things work.
I want to focus on the tie. Why the hell do we wear ties anyway? They're uncomfortable as hell and it's really hot today (not in here, where it's freezing).
Here is why:
The history of neckties dates back a mere hundred years or so, for they came into existence as the direct result of a war. In 1660, in celebration of its hard-fought victory over the Ottoman Empire , a crack regiment from Croatia (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), visited Paris. There, the soldiers were presented as glorious heroes to Louis XIV, a monarch well known for his eye toward personal adornment. It so happened that the officers of this regiment were wearing brightly colored handkerchiefs fashioned of silk around their necks. These neck cloths, which probably descended from the Roman fascalia worn by orators to warm the vocal chords, struck the fancy of the king, and he soon made them an insignia of royalty as he created a regiment of Royal Cravattes. The word "cravat," incidentally, is derived from the word "Croat."
And:
The tie was initially born as a piece of material worn by Roman legionnaires around the neck for reasons of hygiene or climate and was called a "focale." Centuries later the French wore this "handkerchief", borrowing in their time from that which was worn by Croatian mercenaries during the Twenty Years War. In 1661 Louis XIV instituted the position of "tie maker" for the king, a gentleman who was assigned to help the king arrange and knot the necktie. Nine years after 1661 the Duchess of Lavalliere, favorite of the king, was the first woman to wear a tie. In the 19th century her name would be given to the most graceful of masculine ties. In 1925 the American tie maker Jesse Langdorsf patented a long tie, less crumpled and more stable, sewn from three pieces of fabric and cut to a taper. The modern tie was born.
I wish I was a warrior, I'd even wear a tie on Fridays.
Posted by portocac
at 11:48 AM CDT