This past Sunday, I  watched the final episode of When We Left Earth. A great series that told the history of the manned space program in beautiful HD.

One thing that stuck me as the various clips wound through the years from the late 50’s to the present decade was the changes in men’s wardrobe. The early clips showed the standard dress for men, white shirt & narrow dark tie. Being engineers in Florida meant that many wore short sleeve shirts. It looked a bit startling to see so many men wearing ties and what is today more formal wear. Even in what we think are more casual settings most men were wearing the shirt and tie.

As the 60’s wore on, we start seeing more relaxed approach. The hairstyles become a bit longer, the shirts start to be a more varied palette but the ties remained. Then in the 70’s, hair was even longer, the pattens on shirts and ties became more pronounced. Even the pants took on hideous bold checkered patterns and colours. Finally, in the 90’s and present time, the tie was chucked, the shirts were mostly polo shirts and everything became more relaxed.

Recently, a trade organisation dedicated to the neckwear trade had to give up the shop as the number of men who wear ties as part of their everyday business wear had diminished to just 6%. Of that 6%,  I suspect that it mostly business executives, media personalities and politicians. Very rarely do I encounter people wearing ties as part of their attire.

It was a different scenario 15-20 years ago when I entered the workforce. As an assistant manager at a Kmart store in Canada, a tie was mandatory. When I switched careers as an IT specialist, even working in a cubicle, the tie was required as it was when I lived and worked in Germany. It was not until I returned from Europe back in 1998 that my company adopted a five day a week casual wear which meant mostly no ties.

These days, we seem to have moved further down the casual dress scale. Wearing shorts and t-shirts to work, sandals on the feet seem to convey a lack of seriousness sometimes. I must confess that I do that too especially in the heat of summer.

Still, for most of the week, I try to adhere to a better sense of dress. In fact, it was brought up in my annual review that my everyday appearance was rated quite highly as I usually come to work in dress khakis, long sleeve dress shirts and shoes. In summer time, I would rotate out to short sleeve shirts but that is the only change I would make.

Lately, I wonder sometimes I should wear on occasion a tie  to work. For Nicholas’s funeral, I wore a tie for the first tie I think in years. Yet it did not feel uncomfortable or out of place for me. There is a feeling out there and one I share to some degree that perhaps we have taken casualness in our business attire too far. In today’s Winston-Salem Journal, there is an article on how the city is setting standards for business dress including having manager wears ties on every day except Fridays. People were going too far in their dressing habits.

It is unlikely that the majority of men who work in the white collar world will revert back to the shirt and tie apparel of yesterday. Still, I think back to the way men used to dress where a shirt and tie convey s sense of purposeness and also an acknowledgement of when their work life ended and their home life began. Just a few days ago, I caught a bit of the movie The Long, Long Trailer with Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball and in one scene, Desi and Lucy were driving with said trailer in tow and Desi was dressed in a suit with a tie. When I travel now, I am wearing a t-shirt, shorts and sneakers. We have certainly come a long way since then.