No doubt there are more important things to write about today – Trump’s impeachment trial is on at the moment, the housing crisis continues to be a crisis, the pandemic continues to rage even while the vaccine starts to be rolled out – and New Zealand argues about whether men should have to wear a tie in Parliament. The big things – the important things. The media loved it.
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I for one am very pleased to see that Speaker Mallard has relaxed on that rule, previously strictly held, that men should have to wear a tie. For a start, it’s more sexist than it is racist. Women are never forced to do this stupid thing with their neck. Nor do they have to wear a suit. I’m in complete agreement with Rawiri Waititi, that a tie is an outdated and nasty piece of material, a colonial noose. It is that indeed and more besides. Although I should point out to Rawiri that a gentleman should not wear a hat indoors.
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I’ve never been into ties – hardly ever worn one – despite various people saying I would look good in a suit (I wouldn’t, and I don’t). But putting a piece of coloured cloth around your neck and tying it into a complex knot does not suddenly make me into a more respectable person. I’ve been kicked out of snooty old clubs before for not wearing a tie or a jacket or the right type of leather on my shoes. I hate ties. I especially hated my 21st birthday, when the three most important women in my life each gave me a tie. My mother, my sister, and my girlfriend. Curiously, all red. Not so curiously, none were ever worn. I will not be tied up like a dog with a leash.
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But architects have never really been about ties – at least not the long dangly straight ones. No, instead, for some strange reason, architects were known by many for wearing a bow tie. Sir Miles Warren loved to wear a bow tie. Paris Magdalinos loved to wear a bow tie. Many architects used to wear a tie. Corbusier did. Mies van der Rohe did not. But Walter Gropius liked to wear one. And Peter Eisenman. And so too, apparently, everyone’s favourite Dad, Mr Louis Kahn.
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There’s an argument that architects would wear a bow tie so that they would not be dragging a piece of material through the drying ink on their drawing. Remember ink? Remember hand drawing?
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No? Hmmm. I thought so. Nor, clearly, does the stock photo industry, with this pathetic image below, supposedly of an architect at work: no one wears a hard hat at their work desk. Nor do they wear it tied under their chin with a ribbon. Nor do they draw with a craft knife, and especially when it is round the wrong way… Nor should they measure off their drawings with a measuring tape. And lastly, nor should they wear a tie. Its all so clueless….
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Architects have always been respectable members of society, and usually are well dressed, despite a lack of ties. Zaha did not wear a tie. Sir Norman Foster sometimes wears a tie, but mostly not. Frank Lloyd Wright mostly used to wear a cravat, I think, which is a floppy sort of tie for the effete dresser: or for French people. Mostly, as you have probably already heard many times already, architects supposedly wear a black polo neck jersey. Along with glasses with wacky circular lenses. Who are these kids meant to be?
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Maybe that is just a thing for Americans. Maybe here the uniform for architects is more likely to be an IceBreaker skivvy. Some cold days in winter our entire office is wearing an IceBreaker. Not a bow tie in sight. Certainly not a tie in sight.
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Let’s get back to work – on the really important things in life, in New Zealand. On housing. On building our future. On solving child poverty. On saving the planet from an excess use of energy and a resulting excess of CO2. One step at a time. Let’s start with housing first.
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I’m heartened and impressed that none of you have commented on this frivolous subject – rightly so. Far too frivolous . Not something that the Fish should cast an Eye on. I feel suitably chastened.
All right – I’ll bite.
Although I am still the owner of a formidable collection of op-shop ties, some of them quite lovely, I virtually never wear one these days. Something about the zeitgeist inclines me towards the look of a Trotskyite sociology lecturer – all cotton drill work jackets and open-necked shirts. It’s a shame for one who once prided himself on the ability to tie a bow-tie (the clue is in the name), but it’s getting harder and harder to see the wearing of a tie as functional – or even fun.
I remember you back in the day when you used to wear a bow tie. Didn’t know it was hand-tied: well done. You look much more relaxed now!
Fancy knowing who did or didn’t wear which kind of tie.
Impressive. . .
Sorry Mr Filth – was that too nerdy for you?
The wonderful Trevor Noah hits it on the head here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X74TY7mGTw
Watch from about 2 minutes in – and make sure you watch till the end. Classic!