Why not buckle it properly?
How did this fashion start?
Would you notice it on someone today?
I’ll take a stab. Buckling takes a long time - longer than a belt I think because its not as stiff as a belt. Also, unlike a trouser belt, it doesn’t need to be buckled for any purpose other than to provide some shape to the drape of the garment and prevent you from looking like a walking wigwam. So, to show you do have a waist, just tie a light knot.
IINM, trench coats started as garments for British officers in the trenches of WWI. I would guess that tying them was simply more expedient than having to mess around with a buckle on the battlefield and possibly not being able to draw your pistol from its holster in a hurry.
It also looks really cool! 
On the front page, I saw this thread title as “The curious fashion of tying…” and I was sure it was gonna be about wearing onions on belts, which was the style at the time.
Because Bogart did it.
This.
QED
Once a boy learns to tie his bathrobe, he’s done!
Me too! We should both go down to the qua. . . nah, fuck that.
I’ll have to start doing that. I only wear the trenchcoat to be pretentious, now I can be cool at the same time.
Absolutely.
If I still have mine, I need to change the buckles to metal ones like Bogie’s.
Does not count.
Bogart could wear freeze dried dog crap suspended from his ears and it would be cool.
Until someone else did it.
Sure, imitating Bogart is cool, if you can pull it off.
Excuse me while I tug my earlobe.
Ironically, if you can’t pull it off, you’ll look like a wanker.
Indeed.
That’s why I can’t find my trenchcoat.
If cool’s why, then why no inkblot masks, too??
What do inkblot masks have to do with Humphrey Bogart or trench coats? :dubious:
I don’t know squat about comics, but inkblot masks turn me on.
You should speak to your physician or a person of the cloth. :dubious:
Tying it (loosely) is much quicker than buckling it, and even quickerer in un-doing it. And it’s an easy method to get the flopping ends out of the way, like tucking your tie into your shirt or under your seatbelt, or using available orifices to tuck away the ends of your binding.
Eh, will you run that by again?