I was watching reruns of “Barney Miller” and I noticed Wojo had a neat looking tie clip. It was a pair of handcuffs.
Anyway I got to thinking, what happened to tie clips? When did they go out of style?
I don’t recall ever wearing them and I’m 45, so they must’ve died out in the early 80s.
As a side question, what’s the most interesting or unique kind of tie clip have you seen or owned?
Note: I put this in Cafe Society as it’s sort of about fashion. Feel free to move it where appropriate.
I still use one though I only wear a tie maybe 1-3 time a year if that.
I do remember one many years ago.
A small gold hand with the middle finger extended.
Worn by a gentleman wearing what looked like a very expensive tailored suit.
I wear one occasionally, as do several other men in my office. One bloke wears one every day.
Mine has my school crest on it.
I wear one every time I wear a tie. I wasn’t aware that there were out of fashion.
If I don’t, the skinny end always sticks out or something. That’s got a to be a worse faux pas than the clip.
I prefer tie tacks. Clips tend to fall out. But I don’t wear ties too often.
They probably went the way of the cufflink.
I don’t wear one when I wear a tie, but that’s more because people are lucky I wear a pair shoes, much less a tie.
I’m crotchety, what can I say?
I think the tie chain is more popular now. More practical, too – keeps the tie in place while allowing a bit of slide. A tie pin damages the fabric, however slightly.
I’ve given Himself several vintage Masonic ones. Actually, there was an article in Slate not too long ago about the death of the tie clip - here. It seems odd to me that men, having so few outlets for sartorial expression, would lose one.
Even without a tie clip, you can tuck the skinny end through the label on the fat end to keep it hidden.
I first started wearing suits regularly in the mid 80s I was informed by the haberdashers I outfitted myself with that tie clips and tie tacs were out of fashion. Ties should fly in the wind.
In the late 80s through the mid 90s, I wore a suit and tie for work. I used to wear a tie tack, because the way in which I tied my ties tended to leave the skinny end too short to fit through the label (or the little fabric “keeper” that some ties had specifically for that purpose). As BrainGlutton notes, the tack did leave little holes in the ties.
I don’t wear ties often anymore, but I’ve since learned how to tie my tie a bit differently, and now the skinny end is long enough to fit through the “keeper”. So, I don’t use a tie tack any longer.
I was told in 1981, as a trainee fresh from college, that only old men wore tie clips and so eschewed their use. I’m 51 now. Do I get to put it back on?
Not just tie clips, but tie tacks as well. I’ve got a handcuffs tie tack, but can’t remember the last time I wore it.
Where do you work? Cuff links are more popular now than they’ve ever been.
I had a tie clip of a slide rule, with a cursor which moved. But it fell apart, and when I wear ties, which has gotten to less than once a year now, I wear my tie pins, including one I got at my bar mitzvah 45 years ago.
I usually wear short sleeve shirts, so I had to get my wrists pierced to wear cuff links.
I think you were misled. As a young hipster professional in the late 80s I wore tie tacks all the time. As I recall, we regarded them as cool retro throwbacks to the early 60s.
Yes, I agree on all accounts. I have several tacks and chains, but almost exclusively wear a chain (although I rarely get to wear a tie any more.)
I don’t often wear one these days, but I did wear a silver tone one with the black-tie-on-black-shirt Navy uniform (commonly called Johnny Cashes). That was a sharp look.
Chris Isaak, the musician, has them. I think he collects vintage ones; either way, he has a couple of stylin’ blazers that he regularly wears where the lapels are edged with hundreds of freakin’ tie clips…I tried to find a pic but my search-fu was weak…