# Suit With No Tie - Yea or Nay?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [December 14, 2005, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573 "2005-12-14T13:17:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2005, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/1 "2005-12-14T13:17:44Z")
Can I wear a suit with no tie and just leave the top button unbuttoned? Is this kosher or unheard of?
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2005, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/2 "2005-12-14T13:25:47Z")
> [@Amp](#):
>
> Can I wear a suit with no tie and just leave the top button unbuttoned? Is this kosher or unheard of?
This is best done with a sport coat; not a suit. It’s ok if you’re going somewhere after work and remove the tie, but you really don’t want to leave the house tie-less in a suit. Also, no casual shoes, please.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2005, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/3 "2005-12-14T13:35:38Z")
It can certainly be done with a suit. However, this look works best with a more stylish suit for club, dinner or evening wear. This look doesn’t work as well with a conservative business suit.
If there is no tie, greater care needs to be given to the shirt. Now would be the time to break out the patterns and colors. I’d shy away from white, unless that looks great with that particular suit. You want the look to be stylish and very deliberate, not like you are slumming without a tie.
Doing this with a sport coat or blazer is also a nice choice.
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### Author:  [@Tomcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tomcat)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2005, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/4 "2005-12-14T13:41:10Z")
Also, you might want to stick a tie or two in your office, just in case. The look works, but sometimes during the day you might want to throw the tie on for a meeting.
Also, I suggest being well groomed for this. If you are unshaven, scruffy-haired and the dirt under your nails could grow weeds you will just look unkempt and messy.
-Tcat
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### Author:  [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2005, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/5 "2005-12-14T13:59:27Z")
I wear a suit every day to work, and only put a tie on when I have to. It is certainly not the norm in my line of work (or really even my office) to eschew the tie even when performing dronelike work at one’s desk, but I do it anyway. Screw em.
But always, always have an extra tie handy. I bring one with me when I leave the house in the morning, and have one or two at my desk just in case I forget.
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### Author:  [@girls\_shoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/girls_shoes)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2005, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/6 "2005-12-14T15:55:58Z")
You can wear a suit with no tie and a turtleneck, and pretend it’s the 70’s.
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### Author:  [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/7 "2005-12-14T17:54:04Z")
Wearing a smart-looking turtleneck instead of a shirt looks pretty good too, IMO.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/8 "2005-12-14T19:14:09Z")
I now work in San Francisco. The style seems to be- good suit, blue shirt, no tie. Ties are mostly worn by dudes with grey hair or security guards. Just my observations.
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### Author:  [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2005, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/9 "2005-12-14T19:21:37Z")
Two words: hair shirt.
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### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2005, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/10 "2005-12-14T19:59:59Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> I now work in San Francisco. The style seems to be- good suit, blue shirt, no tie. Ties are mostly worn by dudes with grey hair or security guards. Just my observations.
So the tie has gone from a status symbol to a low-status symbol. “I am obsolete” or “I am underclass.” (Assuming a dude with _prematurely_ grey hair wouldn’t wear a tie, either.)
Reminds me of PJ O’Rourke’s early-'80s observation about LA: suits were for pool cleaners, tuxedos for burials.
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/11 "2005-12-14T20:18:57Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> I now work in San Francisco. The style seems to be- good suit, blue shirt, no tie. Ties are mostly worn by dudes with grey hair or security guards. Just my observations.
This makes me think, more trendily cut suit with more fitted, stylish shirt, rather than the traditional business suit and Oxford shirt.
I’m not sure suit and tie with no shirt has been given its due. 😉
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### Author:  [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/12 "2005-12-15T02:17:30Z")
You might be mistaken for Saddam Hussein.
::d&r::
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### Author:  [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/13 "2005-12-15T03:39:01Z")
> [@medstar](#):
>
> You might be mistaken for Saddam Hussein.
>
> ::d&r::
Or the fun new Holocaust-denying President of Iran – [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad](http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/iran-tries-to-calm-nervous-west/2005/06/26/1119724527007.html). Apparently this is becoming quite the fashion for the insane Middle Eastern demagogue on the go.
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### Author:  [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/14 "2005-12-15T04:02:52Z")
Insane Middle Eastern demagogue? Where do I send my resume?
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### Author:  [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/15 "2005-12-15T05:06:17Z")
Not a suit-wearer, but when I see a guy in that get-up it just looks wrong. There is too much of the shirt showing, and as a consequence the chest looks too broad. I also think of it as something that swarthy 70s-looking guys do, although in that case the first couple of buttons would be undone and there would be a faux gold pendant on their chest. If I saw a guy do this in real life, I’d probably think he’d spilled coffee on his tie or got it caught in the paper shredder.
The first two things I thought of were the Wild and Crazy Guys from SNL and Adrian Monk. Not fictional characters whose fashion sense I’d be emulating.
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### Author:  [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/16 "2005-12-15T05:33:58Z")
To me, the suit-with-no-tie look reminds me of one person: 60-year-old Vince McMahon, the barrel-chested, steroid-pumped, plastic-haired, nearly-senile, Machiavellian madman owner of the WWE, World Wrestling Entertainment.
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### Author:  [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/17 "2005-12-15T18:32:24Z")
> [@Beware of Doug](#):
>
> So the tie has gone from a status symbol to a low-status symbol. “I am obsolete” or “I am underclass.” (Assuming a dude with _prematurely_ grey hair wouldn’t wear a tie, either.)
Low status? I wear a suit and tie everyday. It’s standard attire in senior mgmt, at least in the large corporations I deal with.
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### Author:  [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2005, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/18 "2005-12-16T00:34:36Z")
What’s with the hooded sweatshirt and sport coat look I’m seeing lately? I first noticed it _Dogma_, but as only the angels and the metatron did it, I kinda figured it was a metaphor for wings or something.
Lately, though, I see it a fair amount. Both on TV and in person. What gives?
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2005, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suit-with-no-tie-yea-or-nay/335573/19 "2005-12-16T11:34:55Z")
> [@Carnac the Magnificent!](#):
>
> Low status? I wear a suit and tie everyday.
Quod erat demonstrandum. 😉