For generations, neckties were a constant headache. But new studies questioning the safety of the silk tourniquet may soon see casual Friday lasting all week long.
In June, the medical journal Neuroradiology published a study demonstrating that a Windsor knot “tightened to the point of slight discomfort” could interrupt as much as 7.5 percent of cerebral blood flow. Reduced blood flow to the brain has negative implications for both productivity and creativity.
“In many professions, a special dress code including a necktie and a collared shirt is mandatory although little is known about the effect of this ‘socially desirable strangulation,’ ” Dr. Robin Lüddecke and his colleagues from the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel, Germany, wrote in their study of 30 young men with no known cerebrovascular disease.
A previous study from the University of Glasgow found that “wearing a tight collar or tie may compromise the venous drainage of the brain and thus impair cerebrovascular reactivity,” possibly increasing the incidence of a stroke in those already at risk. Another study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology found that a tight necktie increases intraocular pressure and “could affect the diagnosis and management of glaucoma.”
Two weeks ago that evidence drove R. Rex Parris, 66, the mayor of Lancaster, Calif., to seek a ban on requiring employees to wear the corporate noose.
“Let’s be clear, it’s an antiquated custom that has no social utility that anybody can cite,” Parris, a trial attorney and lifelong tie wearer, tells The Post.
Parris also argues that forcing men into a specifically “male” article of clothing, especially one that is linked to negative health effects, is a form of gender discrimination.
“It gets up to 120 degrees in Lancaster, so ties are uncomfortable,” he says, noting that courts require men to wear a tie. Meanwhile, he says, women are discouraged from wearing uncomfortable high heels in court by their firms. “I always look at things from a trial attorney perspective. So I ask myself, ‘Do women have an advantage?’ ”
Parris says that he hopes local governments across the nation will join the contra-sartorial revolution. In NYC, numerous government agencies, including the district attorney’s office and the court system, require “business attire,” which is often interpreted to mean a suit and tie. Still, it’s unlikely that neckties will go extinct overnight, says Mark-Evan Blackman, a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology and menswear historian.
“As early as 1900,” says Blackman, “men wore one of three things around their neck: a bow tie for very formal occasions, an ascot for slightly less formal occasion and a tie in a business setting.”
The necktie has endured ever since. Yet it’s undeniable that hoodied and turtlenecked tech billionaires such as Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs have unseated the bankers in Brooks Brothers within the American social hierarchy.
“Today a tie connotes certain things,” says Richard Kirshenbaum, 57, CEO of ad agency SWAT, known for his stylish, tie-less European look. “People like that their banker is conservative and they want their accountant to wear a suit and tie. But if you are in a creative profession, I don’t think a tie is as relevant as it was.”
“The pocket square is the tie of 2018,” he adds.
But for many, the tie remains an idée fixe.
“In my business, you want to be better dressed than the clients you are going to see,” says Neil Foley, 28, who works in client management at BNY Mellon bank. “If you show up wearing a tie and then it comes off, it gets questioned. It’s frowned upon.”
Foley, who wears Lazyjack Press and Vineyard Vines ties four days a week, says that ties are not explicitly required at his firm but it would be unthinkable to show up without one.
“Even when clients say, ‘We’re not wearing ties, it’s casual,’ I’ll still wear a tie,” he says.
“Wearing ties … does come with consequences — headaches, neck aches and razor burn.”
Foley regularly experiences tension headaches and neck cramps that he associates with wearing a tie. Because he shaves daily, his tight collar can also irritate his skin.
“Wearing ties may make me look nicer in meetings, but it does come with consequences — headaches, neck aches and razor burn,” he says.
Still, if it were shown definitively that ties stunted his productivity, Foley says, he would stoop to alternatives, such as stretch collars or clip-ons, before dropping the garment altogether.
Even professional tailors — who argue that necktie discomfort is a clear sign of a collar that is too tight — admit that it’s difficult to get a perfect fit.
“In my experience, a man’s weight fluctuates throughout the year and the first thing to change is his neck size,” says Nedo Bellucci, a men’s style consultant and owner of Italian tailoring service Bellucci Napoli. “So if you buy a shirt that fit you well in summer, it might not fit as well in the winter.”
Moreover, the collars of most off-the-rack shirts will shrink after a couple of washes. Bellucci recommends buying shirts with slightly more allowance in the neck and staying in shape.
But before you get too hot under the collar, Dr. Ronald Primas, a Manhattan concierge physician whose clients include numerous white-collar professionals, says he wouldn’t sweat the studies — yet.
“In over 30 years of practice, I have never seen any issue with wearing a tie,” he says. And while there are physiological effects — namely slightly elevated blood pressure — Primas says it isn’t significant.
Pointing to the German study’s small sample size, he says that even if one of his patients had high blood pressure, he wouldn’t recommend they loosen up their ties until there is more definitive research. In fact, knotting up could even come with hidden benefits, he says.
“On the flip side,” Primas says, “there is some evidence that if you have light constriction and release it, you get a rush of oxygen and nutrients to the area that was deprived. It could be a kick to the head.”
Ties through time
