As a young woman who occasionally wears a necktie, and is designing a range for women, my perspective on this symbol of male conformity is slightly different from usual. I was first introduced to the tie when I began school, where ties were part of our winter uniform. To be honest, from the start I wasn't a huge fan. As part of our winter morning ritual, Mum would stand behind me as she tied my tie, because she could only tie it as if she was doing her own, telling me how it reminded her of her father getting ready to go off to work in the mornings when she was a little girl. I found this kind of funny at the time, because I would say that my grandfather had a very, sometimes overly, relaxed fashion style. The only times I remember him wearing a tie, we would hear his sarcastic remarks to "the noose" as he squeezed into his good suit for whatever bar mitzphah, wedding, or funeral he was attending.
In those days, I was inclined to agree with him: the pristine knot that my mother had tied would be manually contorted during the day to resemble a loosely hung slip knot when I returned home. It wasn't until grade 2 that I first learnt how to tie my own (I'd been having trouble with my shoelaces previously). It was a relief when I was eight to change schools where we weren't forced by a cruel headmistress to wear a blazer, hat or tie. I guess in hindsight my old headmistress wasn't so cruel. I now think that those school uniforms look far classier than the green and gold tracksuit I used to wear, plus it's a nicely sophisticated way for a school to display uniformity amongst its pupils and their allegiance to the school.
I didn't begin wearing ties again until I started uni, and got a job working with vintage clothing. It's not that I was still bitter about my early school days. It was more a case of not wanting to be affiliated with the female tie-wearing stereotypes that I had come across by that stage. Up until starting uni, the only female tie-wearers I had seen were at places like the Big Day Out, where you have heaps and heaps of young people dressing up to get noticed, having fun with what they're wearing, amongst the swarms of music fans. You've got your punk rocker, skater chicks, who make a bad habit of stealing their father's ties and wearing them crudely with their spaghetti strap singlet tops. On the same scene you'd come across the naughty school girl, usually found in pairs, in her mini pleated skirt, form fitting shirt (possibly from year 7) unbuttoned to accommodate her new fuller figure, and a loosely knotted tie resting smack bang in the middle of your line of vision. It's no wonder some parents are compelled to lock their daughters away until they're 27. Then you also had the androgynous page-boy look, which I've never heard defined like that, but that's what I'm calling it now. They had fewer numbers and less attention, with their cropped haircuts, tightly fitted jeans, box cut shirts and cutely stripped ties, but they appeared to have more fashion sense than most of us did at that age (or at least me).
So how did I overcome these mental images of skater chicks and naughty school girls? Did I see a picture of Katherine Hepburn looking ultra feminine and elegant whilst wearing a fitted pants suit and tie, and think "that counters everything I've thought up until now, why can't I do that?" Perhaps. But clearer in my mind is the first time I connected with a very cute, kitsch tie at my work. It was a children's tie from the early fifties, covered in rockets and astronauts. It was shorter and thinner than most male ties, and was pre-tied sitting on a loop of elastic that hides under your shirt collar when you wear it. For some silly reason that tie is still sitting there in the counter, two years since it first came in, and as i talk about it now, I think i should stop being such a scrooge and buy it, before someone else realises how damn fine it is!
Instead of buying that one, I've brought numerous others. Skinny fifties ties cut flat rather than pointed, loud fat 70's ties, and any unusual ones I come across in op shops or at work. Colour is the first thing that gets me, or an unusual weave or print. The way I see it, ties are just another vehicle we can use to add colour and individuality to an outfit, whilst appearing neat and, one hopes, elegant.
I don't wear ties every day and I think that's the main reason why I like them so much, because I don't have to. There's no particular place where I will always wear a tie, or feel the need to, but it's definitely something I will wear out, where I want to feel presentable but in my own way. It's not a lounging on the couch accessory.
No matter how snappy I might feel though, there's one problem that gets me every time: they're cut for men. They're cut for a longer somewhat flatter torso, framed by larger shoulders than my own. Therefore I am constantly knotting my tie incorrectly to achieve a shorter front blade which I think looks like the tie fits me better, and I like this. At the moment I am resorting to tucking the back blade through my button holes to hide the extra foot of fabric my knot has created. I thought it would be best to do a little research, a find my perfect tie, cut to complement my figure, that wouldn't leave me looking like I'd borrowed my dads.
Sadly, to cut a long story short-there are none. From department stores to speciality boutiques, I was showed dainty silk scarves, but no neck ties specifically designed for women. I was told by a sales assistant that less than 2% of tie sales were made by women buying for themselves. Now why is this? Is it because we link the wearing of a tie to our schooldays, or see it as a symbol of male conformity? Or is it, and I hope, because there are none out there (currently at least) that are marketed specifically towards women? As a sex known for our extreme consumerist ways, I find it hard to believe, that if the package was right, we wouldn't buy that tie.
So that's why I decided to design ties, ties that would fit me better and would be the kind of accessory I would want to wear when I'm going out. From looking through books on ties I came across pictures from an early nineteenth century men's manual on tying cravats. These pictures displayed the many different knots and styles of wearing cravats, many I'd never even considered. Even in that context, the designs looked slightly feminine, with a very strong attention to detail. Its these aesthetics that I focus my own designs on, just with a greater emphasis on feminine embellishment and adornment.
Although it will continue to carry the stigma as a symbol of male conformity, I think there is a certain cheekiness in stealing it for female adornment, wearing it when we want, and how we want. And it is this attitude that female tie wearers bring to the long list already associated with tie wearing. Females have, and I hope will continue, to show that tie wearing doesn't have to be dictated, or reluctant, but an alternative vehicle for our self expression.