« Pass on the Plate | Home | Accolades for Vulgarity? »
Hanging by a Thread
By John W. Kennedy | June 26, 2008
Father’s Day is over and thankfully I didn’t receive a necktie. Apparently most other fathers didn’t either. The necktie is having trouble hanging on in today’s culture. It has become a victim of changing fashion trends.
After 60 years, the Men’s Dress Furnishing Association, the trade group that represents U.S. tie manufacturers, ceased to exist this month. With business casual in vogue in the American workplace — including at Assemblies of God headquarters — tie sales have plummeted nearly in half since peaking at $1.3 billion in 1995, according to market researcher NPD Group. A recent Gallup poll indicated that only 6 percent of men wear ties to work every day. And with new ties costing an average of more than $15 apiece, a tie isn’t a popular fashion accessory in a troubled economy.
At the beginning of the decade I wore a suit and tie to work every day as well as to church on Sunday. Now, a couple of dozen pieces of neckwear and a dozen suits are collecting dust in my bedroom closet. I say good riddance. I enjoy wearing a tie about as much as my wife likes to put on pantyhose.
The transition to tieless workplaces has been swift. In fact, not that long ago men wore ties everywhere. Check out film footage from a professional baseball game crowd or a game show audience in the late 1950s. Virtually all males are attired in ties.
Some churches of course are still the place for people to dress up. I understand the notion of my parents’ generation that we shouldn’t walk into the sanctuary to see how scruffy we can look. Yet at the same time, we need to remember that Jesus doesn’t turn people away because of torn clothes, body piercings or tattoos. Jesus taught in Matthew 23:28 that appearing righteous on the outside isn’t important if inside we are full of wickedness and hypocrisy.
Topics: fashion |