On 12/22/04, we had a Cecil’s classic on neckties (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_155 )
Let’s not leave out the fact that colored neckties came from the English use of bibs. The more food you slobbered onto your bib, the higher your social status (you could afford to be a slob and waste food, etc.). This eventually mutated into wearing a piece of cloth around your neck with colors on it as a status symbol.
I would appreciate seeing some cite for this, as it sounds too much like one of those cute revisionist stories.
Me, I’m just reeling from the 80’s flashbacks caused by the gratuitous reference to “jams” in the update.
Nooooo! Noooooo! Keep them away!!! sobs
No cite available. That’s the history given me by my father, who would be about the last person in the world to practice revisionist anything. He believed it to be true, that’s all I can say.
What about the theory that ties point to the male crotch area?
Anyway, men don’t dress flashy? My Versace, Armani etc. would prove otherwise.