The traditional formal and business wear for the last century or so has been the jacket and tie - and its variants, the three piece suit, tuxedo, etc. What is the origin of this style? And why has it become so ingrained into human culture? It now transcends its western-European and American roots and is a fixture for men who want to look sharp the world over. Its also relatively unchanged - the suits that George W Bush wears is not that different from those Abraham Lincoln wore.
Well, the tie is an artifact from when collars and shirts were separate - the tie held them together.
A necktie, which hangs low, could only be worn if one weren’t dealing with machinery that could gobble up the tie and strangle you all day long - my WAG is that that’s how it got associated with more formal, or business, wear.
Diarist Samuel Pepys noted the day (in the 1660s, I think) that Charles II appeared in the new jacket. Instead of a doublet and jerkin, he wore a short light doublet-like garment (a waistcoat or vest) and a knee-length garment with sleeves. It became very popular, and stayed popular (in various forms) for the next 300+ years.
The wearing of ties in Europe also appears to date back to the 1600s, when Louis XIV saw Croatian soldiers on parade, wearing bright cloths around their necks. “Croat” became “cravat,” and Louis commissioned a corps of cravat-wearing soldiers for his guard. In England, the cravat came to be called a “neck-tie.” The Croats may have gotten this idea from Rome, but similar neck-cloths have been found in Egypt and China.