Princess Diana styled her jaunty elephant neckwear with shoulder pads. Diane Keaton’s in Annie Hall made them a must-have. The necktie was declared obsolete in the post-pandemic offices of Canary Wharf but it is making a comeback this autumn — at least for women (Hannah Rogers writes).
Luxury brands peddled ties on their catwalks this season. It girls are wearing them on red carpets and the covers of glossy magazines, while the couture set modelled them on the front row.
And they don’t need to be worn with a suit. Nicolas Ghesquière, Louis Vuitton’s creative director, paired his floral print take with white shirts and shift dresses at the French brand’s autumn 2022 catwalk show in Paris last February. At Milan fashion week, Gucci’s ties were skinny in black leather with patent pencil skirts, mesh vests and berets.
Ralph Lauren paired black, white and polka dot iterations in New York last spring with pie-crust collar shirts and halter neck gowns. Plain black ties feature in every look of Dior’s pre-autumn collection, which hit the stores in May. The French luxury label’s Twin Double Bee Tie is made of silk and costs £190.
Zendaya, 25, the actress and Gen Z pin-up, wears ties. She chose a black Sportmax version with a double-breasted blazer to the Oscars after-party this year. On the August cover of British Vogue, Cynthia Erivo, 35, who starred in the heist film Widows, modelled a striped tie from Louis Vuitton along with leather trousers.
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During the 1980s, Princess Diana’s ties came broad and in bold colours in cheeky designs. She was a great adopter of the trend. On a 1985 tour of Italy, she wore a jade green Jasper Conran suit and tie.
A navy polka dot iteration was teamed with a broad-shouldered blue coat at the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988. To visit her brother’s new baby in 1994, she wore a gold elephant embroidered tie with matching suit.
The fuel crisis generation’s are a touch more stripped back — this year’s ties come skinny, plain and mostly in black. The style set wears them with checked skirts, shorts, blazers and pearls.
Expect the same look to be worn at desks in It-brand HQs soon (when they eventually get back from their August vacances).
