Don't be scared to tie the knot

Men and ties - it's a tumultuous relationship. Their history as a fashion accessory, you'd be surprised to know, is very telling about how men function and their place in society. Pretty intense for a strip of cloth you tie around your neck.

That these days the argument exists that not all men want to wear ties and in fact they don't need to. It doesn't particularly help either that thanks to one particular world leader who seems to have a preoccupation with brightly coloured and oversized ties that he sticks together with tape, the tie is being associated with all manners of crudeness.

Despite its seemingly simple construction and design, there is nothing simple about the tie. It is a diverse accessory with many subtle forms and ways it can be worn and combined with other elements of dressing that can fit into any man's personal style.

The modern man is still shaking off the idea that predominated the 90s and early 2000s where the tie became the cultural symbol for the noose of social death and corporate slavery. Reality check - unless you're interested in perpetuating the caricature of the cheap salesman, it's no longer a prerequisite for anyone (even CEOs) to wear a tie in order to be taken seriously.

So, if ties no longer equate to professionalism and all that serious stuff, what's the point of wearing them? Well, depending on the context and the technique, they are chic, cool and a lot of fun. All you need to do is adapt the tie to your own style with a little contemporary ingenuity and you, the modern man, from the classically dressed, the hipster, the jock, the prepster, the corporate powerhouse, the hip hop street artist and the motorcycle enthusiast, to the rock star, the extreme adventurer and even the uninterested, might find yourself actually wanting to wear one.

First things first when it comes to wearing ties. Like we said, ties aren't serious anymore if you don't want them to be, but they can be a complicated business. Thin ties have been in for a while but we are now seeing that wide ties are on the rise. Loosely knotted, maybe even a little shorter than one would usually have it (just over your belt buckle) following the general trend of men's tailoring being looser and simpler.

Don't get caught up with trends though. The most important thing you need to think about when wearing a tie is balance. Depending on how broad your shoulders are and your general build, make sure your tie and the lapels of your jacket (if you're wearing one) are all in harmony. There are more than 30 ways to knot a tie - the three most common are the Four-In-Hand, the Windsor and the Half Windsor. There are also 6 common types of collars, 5 of which are suitable for tie wearing and those are, the Wing Tip, Club, Button-Down, Straight Point and the Spread. This gives you a variation of options when it comes to exactly what style you want for all your tie wearing necessities. You can check out different Instagram accounts and men's fashion blogs to get a better understanding of what works best for you.
Want my advice though? Keep it simple. A crisp white collared shirt with either a Spread or Straight Point collar paired with dark denim jeans and a simple or eccentric tie can and will definitely make the right statement.
How did it come about that men, all over the world, managed to wear a simple piece of fabric around their necks, that has no actual function other than to look good? A tie doesn't keep us warm or dry and it certainly isn't comfortable at times. However, it is a necessity at weddings and some work environments and more or not these days the tie has been reinterpreted as a chic item of clothing that can be worn casually. Depending on your experiences and feelings toward the tie, who do we thank or blame for this simple piece of men's fashion ingenuity?

It has to be a king of course and a French King at that. King Louis XIII may have not invented the actual tie but with his keen eye for all things sartorial he had the vision to see that a piece of fabric worn around the neck had the potential to transform the wearer into a man of style.

The tie originated in 17th century France during the 30-year war when King Louis XIII hired Croatian mercenaries. These Croatian armed forces wore a piece of cloth around their necks as part of their uniforms which although looked impressive also had the added function of tying the top of their jackets. King Louis XIII loved the look and made these ties a mandatory accessory for royal gatherings and to give a nod of respect to the Croatian mercenaries. He gave this fabric accessory a name that many people still use today - La Cravate.
The La Cravate was popular in Europe for over 200 years but the tie as we know it today emerged in the 1920s when New Yorker Jessie Langsdorf invented a new way of cutting fabric during construction that kept the tie in a certain shape.

Since then the tie has gone through subtle changes from trends in length, width, colours and patterns often as a reaction to different social climates such as war, the rise of industrialism and corporate, music and fashion culture. But to be honest the actual shape of the tie hasn't changed in nearly 90 years. To me this pretty much proves that the tie is as close to fashion perfection as possible.

• Dubai