A Sincere Tie

I discovered the phrase ‘a sincere tie’ when reading this article on an IBM president on Ivy Style, one of my favourite sites about mens clothing.

My first reaction was to laugh. Its kind of a ridiculous idea. I can’t imagine that the phrase would ever be acceptable in a company now. It sounds humourless and controlling. It shows a complete lack of self awareness. And its really compelling to me.

After I laughed at it I thought about how the phrase implied that thought and care should be put into a person’s appearance. I thought about how I used to dismiss the idea that thought should be put into clothing, that it was shallow to care about your appearance. ‘A sincere tie’ began to sound like a motto I could be proud of. I’m sick of not knowing about clothes. I’m sick of pretending that I don’t care. I want to be elegant.

And after that wierd crisis of nostslgia and self esteem I thought about what a troubling phrase it is. It was created by a rich white man for his subordinates. It wasn’t a motto, it was a command. It is a phrase loaded with antiquated ideas about how men should behave. There are really good arguments for why it isn’t in use at IBM today. I wondered if it was just a tool of oppression. I still couldn’t get it out of my head.

I’ve decided to embrace it. I love classic mens style and I am fascinated by the social politics behind it. At the same time I worry about losing myself in nostalgia or eroding my principles by just looking at the past. ‘A Sincere Tie’ creates a contradictory mess of thoughts and images in my head and as such I thought it a fitting title for a tumblr about my complex, wierd relationship with mens style.