Comic Rufus Hound, who last week won Sport Relief’s Let’s Dance contest on the telly, lately purchased a reversible one at Pose in Covent Garden.
In reality look around and they are all over the place from HM, to Urban Outfitters’ vintage section, to the eye-popping versions at Duchamp ( long-established as furnishers of the ties that blind and at men’s accessory heaven, Freedom .
The client varies from a more classic guy requiring something for a black tie event to a fashion savvy man choosing the Alber’ bow tie, which is larger and more directional. But I suspect with brands offering twine and tweed versions, we’re going to see a rise in daytime wearing of bow ties as these fabrics feel more relaxed than the conventional silks.”.
The primary style of bow tie that conventional stores have been trying to lure us with is the skinny and, shudder, pre-knotted version. Think cardigans and tight check trousers the spotty young gay personality in the BBC fashion disaster that was Material Girl or the North American character P-wee Herman. It’s no coincidence that geek is good, with such shows as The IT Crowd, the Big Bang Idea and Happiness tempting stellar ratings. Actually the thin dicky is the most fashion forward pick the more normal bow and you risk looking like a florid antiques dealer of the daytime Television ilk. But back to the Doctor, who has always had a special piece of clobber : Jon Pertwee’s smoking jacket, Peter Davison’s cricket whites or David Tennant’s thin suit with loosened tie. The producers allegedly wanted Smith ( the 11th Doctor ) to be rigged out like Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean films but he defied the look and advised the bow tie, nattily mixed with a tweedy jacket for the trendy-professor-meets-rock-star-from-outer-space look. He’s following in the convention of the 2nd Doctor, Patrick Troughton, and Jon Pertwee, who infrequently grouped one with his smoking jacket, a tumescent velvet affair paying homage to Michael Aspel hosting Miss World circa 1976.
Naturally, the disturbing question about the Doctor’s neck apparel is : is it the genuine unfastened thing, the preferred option, naturally, for true gentlemen and Time Lords?
I am reliably informed the police wear clip-on ties, not simply because they’re awfully retro but to stop attackers strangling them. Perhaps the Doctor is fearful of being throttled by a Cyberman however overtly, I do not see a clip-on job standing up too well in an intergalactic scrimmage with the Daleks.