A reader question for the community:
Question for the group: should a man wear a business suit without a necktie?
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No!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely not.
ReplyDeleteYeah, no. Always a tie. There are only a couple of exceptions. You can go sans tie if you are a sportscaster or something dramatic happened as in my house with all my ties burnt to the ground and this tie-less suit is the only thing I have left. This comes from Willoughby's Suit & Tie Rule Book.
ReplyDeleteAiken
Huh?
ReplyDeleteNo really no!
ReplyDeleteNever.
ReplyDeleteFor me, no. But nobody has (yet) made me Commissar of Ties and Suits, so as you go your rounds among Modern Corporate America, be aware there are sights you cannot un-see.
ReplyDeleteJust a word to the wise.
I love a good sense of humor. Men wearing a suit with a tie look almost as sexy as men wearing a dinner jacket. But then, I grew up in the era of Sean Connery as James Bond and Steve McQueen as Thomas Crown.
DeleteNo. A suit without a tie just looks unfinished. Even worse with spread collar shirts that are trying to escape and fly.
ReplyDeleteThe only remotely acceptable case of this I've seen: suit, contrasting fawn vest, standup band collar. But he was English, and "charmingly eccentric", and it was on a TV show, so it got a sort-of pass.
NCJack
Only with a sport coat and not a full suit. Think navy jacket, grey pants, white or blue shirt, no tie.
ReplyDeleteBirthday suit?
ReplyDeleteAre leisure suits on the come back?
ReplyDeleteAiken
Business suit without a tie if you are Ray Donovan, but Frank Martin would probably say "no," so there you go.
ReplyDeleteMen who wear suits without ties are also inclined to
ReplyDeleteunbutton their dress shirts halfway down to the navel.
How else can you show off your gold chains?
DeleteHahahaha Perfect!
DeleteMaryAnne
I think it's a tacky look, and defeats the whole point of a suit, which is to look polished.
ReplyDeleteIn some parts of the world, a necktie is seen as a symbol of Western culture and as such is avoided. But the suit is doing just fine in such places, possibly as a symbol of power or wealth or something. It's quite remarkable that the tie has been around so long in its present form, even with all the variations in width. Suits have varied some during that time, too.
ReplyDeleteFirst thing I thought of
DeleteOld West, "necktie party"...
If you want to forego the suit trousers too, then I think it would be fine -- but not in public, of course.
ReplyDeleteForgo, not forego.
DeleteGarrison Halibut November 14, 2019 at 10:22 AM:
DeleteSorry, but that's just the way golfer's spell the word.
No, it is never OK. Period.
ReplyDeleteIt's real simple....a blazer or sportcoat without a tie is perfectly appropriate. A suit requires a tie...PERIOD!!!When I see a high ranking executive on TV wearing a suit without a tie I immediately lose respect for him. He looks like a lazy slob! Even worse is having his crew neck tee shirt showing. Yet another symptom of Societal Decay!!!
ReplyDeleteSo you lose respect for someone because their aesthetic tastes in clothing aren't refined? I like clothing, I like being well-dressed, and I like seeing well-dressed people; HOWEVER, there are far more important things in the world. You can be an excellent human being without being well-dressed. Furthermore, I am not sure that being well-dressed makes you a better human being (if it does, it is probably by a pretty marginal extent).
DeleteI think it is more of a sign of societal decay to be judging people and deciding how respectable they are based on trivial matters like clothing.
No. I enjoyed/appreciated the comments but especially one bit that can apply to many things - "a sight you can't un-see" and I'm not going to share what came immediately to my mind.
ReplyDeleteNo!
ReplyDeleteIf it is a seersucker and you are south of the Mason Dixon line it is ok. But only between Decoration Sunday (Memorial Day for the rest of the US) and Labor day.
ReplyDeleteI'll agree with preceding comments. A blazer or sports jacket without a tie, yes. A suit is dressier and more formal, meaning it requires a necktie, and this is important, cinched up to where it needs to be depending on one's neck measurement. The late John Lennon was the ONLY one able to put off the unbuttoned collar and loosened tie look during the earlier Beatles days. Most guys doing so today lack the attitude, confidence, and heat to pull it off in the same way, instead looking simply like they forgot something. Or they are simply a worn out, slightly sweaty commuter on the way home from Manhattan via train in a John Cheever story. ;-)
ReplyDeleteBest Regards,
Heinz-Ulrich
Yes, but those that do are not like us.
ReplyDeleteIf you are not going to wear a tie,why bother with a suit
ReplyDeleteNo... not... never... unless he wears a T-shirt with a suit, which in my humble opinion is even worse...
ReplyDeleteOnly if you wear a baseball hat on backwards to go along with it.
DeleteNO, suit always requires a necktie.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe I've ever seen anyone wear a suit without a tie. A sports coat without a tie, of course. But not wearing a tie with a suit seems off. It's like wearing a kilt without the kilt hose/socks. Just off.
ReplyDeleteNo, tie-less business suits are an abomination. This is one of my least favorite trends in men's professional clothing. If you want to go tie-less, wear an odd jacket and trousers or a suit made of a casual fabric.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely not. The worst example of this "trend" is the business suit
ReplyDeletewith French cuffs and pocket square and no tie.
I'll throw my vote in with the rest of the commentariat and say that a business suit worn without a tie looks unfinished and inappropriate.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note: I travel the eastern seaboard between DC and Boston frequently, and those of us who feel the way we do are in the minority on this one. The Amtrak Acela train is chock-a-block with men dressed in this exact fashion, not to mention the teeming masses on the streets of Manhattan and every other business district in the other northeastern cities. I never thought I'd be saying this, but if I had to choose between the suit-without-a-tie finance bro, and the Patagonia-better-sweater-fleece-vest-over-dress-shirt-with-orphaned-suit-pants finance bro, I'd take the latter.
Curveball: What if you live on or near the West Coast, and wearing a necktie is unusual enough that you can hardly wear one to a (successful) job interview? I'm surrounded out there!
ReplyDeleteWhen in Rome...
DeleteGet a big hat. You will fit right in and your worries will no longer be focused on ties.
DeleteFair enough. Sometimes I wear the necktie anyway, because it feels good to be a rebel!
DeleteMakes me think he just got out of jail and his tie was taken from him so he doesn't hang himself.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a business traveler, the only time I noticed suits without ties was during those end-of-the-day business flights home, when the business-suited gentlemen took off their ties and relaxed a bit on the flight. That’s about the only time I would ever say the tieless suit was appropriate.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was still in the working world, my boss wore a dark blue suit (with a tie) every day. I wore a tie most of the time but no one else did except on rare occasions. But the owner of the company often wore a suit nearly always without a tie. I suppose it's okay if you're the owner. But except for the guys in the cabinetmaking shop in the back (this was a tradeshow company), no one showed up for work in t-shirt and jeans.
ReplyDeleteDepends on the suit. With a business type suit, it is probably best not to skip the tie. With a more casual suit, i.e. a suit in a more casual fabric (e.g. cotton twill,linen, seersucker, corduroy, tweed) preferably with less structure, it can be fine. For example, a linen suit with soft shoulders without a tie can look great. Similarly, a corduroy suit with an OCBD and shetland sweater under the jacket can look great.
ReplyDeletesummer suit at a suitable (pun intended) and less-formal event, or with a blazer, perhaps. Depends on the event. Business suit? Not wure I have ever worn one without a tie.
ReplyDeleteChristian Grey's had a fine multi purpose tie...
ReplyDeleteThe question asked was, "Should...?"
ReplyDeleteMy answer to "should" is no, not ever. Do men do so? Sadly, yes.
Will I? Never. Nor would I wear a suit without wearing socks. Egads.