Nope, but that’s an interesting guess.
IIs it used to aline multiple objects? Buttons and a button hole for instance?
Nope. It just retains something.
Zip tie tightener.
Nope.
Does it hold the neck of a balloon of some kind while you tie off the nozzle of the balloon? Perhaps it’s for workers at places like Chuck E. Cheese, who tie lots and lots of helium balloons?
Some kind of rope tightener? A belay perhaps?
A little more insight into this ballpark you speak of. 
It isn’t a belay. It does tighten something somewhat.
A penis enlargement device?
Ow!
OHMYGODIHOPENOT!
Is it something you would have to work in a specific occupation to have a need for, or would one of us use it around the house?
While it could be used at work or home, it would be sold to businesses primarily.
Okie dokie, what’s the next item
I can hear my father’s voice across the span of time, “It’s designed to make you ask questions, works pretty well doesn’t it?”
Would it be helpful for us to try to work out what your job was when you used that?
I didn’t actually use it. However, I was in the industry that would have sold it.
In the photos you show the longer part stationary while the shorter part rotates. In actual use, is that the sequence? Or is the shorter part held steady while the longer part is rotated around it? Is it rotated at all in use, or is the swivel design simply for convenience of storage while not in use?
It looks like (and I needed the third photo to get this) the free end of the shorter piece could be touched perpendicularly and twisted a quarter turn to a wire, then turned a quarter turn to grasp the wire. The longer part could be used as a handle to pull the wire up. Although the OP said it was not clothing related, it looks like it could be used to tighten ice skate laces.
The fork on one end reminds me a little of the tool used to remove golf shoe spikes.
The swiveling part comes into play after you’ve used the long part for it’s part of the function. The swiveling part rotates freely when the device is not in use and does not have any function related to its storage.