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Tie Tacks (& Tie Bars)
I do not wear a suit & tie often since I spent much of my life in uniform but the need to dress up is sneaking up on me with old age. One little tie tack caught my attention in an auction lot and I suddenly found myself the owner of a dozen varied but surprisingly nice tie tacks. (I do not own a dozen wearable ties!) I do hate how a tie flops all over the place and this hits me as a clever and subtle device to solve that issue.
I was showing off my new acquisitions and my mother offered to let me go through and take what I wanted from my deceased father's jewelry. He was a large animal veterinarian and wore a suit about as often as I do but it seems that he had quite a collection of similar baubles. He owned several tie bars as well. I was surprised to find a Good Humor tie bar then found out that he worked as a Good Humor man through college and vet school (and as a cowboy in the summers.) I would have never guessed. There were also a variety of fraternal order items which my grandfather apparently kept giving my father who refused to join anything except his college veterans' fraternity.
Who all wears either a tack or bar here? Are these still reasonably acceptable? Would you wear one to an interview? If you were interviewing someone for a job, what would you think of them wearing a tack or bar?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Matthew Palardy on -
As I tend to wear a three-piece suit (or a sport coat with a sweater), I don't wear tie jewelry. However, when I was younger, and obliged to wear a cravat at work, I would wear the bar to prevent the tie from moving every which way. Honestly, as with any men's jewelry, so long as it's not garish or distracting, I would consider it a liability at all.
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Permalink Reply by Thunderstick on
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Sometimes I wear a tie bar but the tie jewlery with a chain is very functional for controling your tie.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Wisbrock on -
Tacks tend to put holes in ties. I prefer bars, myself.
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Permalink Reply by Jesse Jack on -
Same.
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Permalink Reply by W. Carrington III on -
+1
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Permalink Reply by Mike S. on -
I agree. I have had the issue with holes not going away after using tacks. As nice as they look, they will in most cases damage your tie.
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Permalink Reply by Rick Shelton on -
I don't care for the look of the tie bar/tie clip as I think they look tacky (no pun intended). I prefer the tie tack and just take care not to break the threads. I also like the look of the tie chain, which clips on a button and has the chain that controls the tie. I have a gold tie tack with a small ruby that I love but needs to be resoldered as the pin has come off.
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Permalink Reply by Anthony Williams on -
I used to wear tie tacks: they look the coolest, in my opinion. My favorite was a green jade bear, but they come in so many styles that you're bound to find something you like. They have two problems: they can punch holes in ties and the catch on the back gets loose after a while.
For the hole-in-the-tie problem, my dad taught me how to avoid that: when pushing the point through the tie, wiggle it back and forth instead of pushing it in. The idea is to slide it between the tie threads instead of breaking them. It does work pretty well, but every time you do it there's a chance you'll break the threads anyway.
So I don't do tacks any more. Bars are good, but they don't allow any give to the tie. If you have to stretch for some reason you'll find the tie grabbing you around the neck. So a tie chain is my choice. Although I have to admit I haven't actually bought any yet. But with a silver chain and a gold chain you should be covered for any color of suit or tie. And they aren't too expensive: last time I looked a jewelry store they were $25-30 each.
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Permalink Reply by LShieldes on
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I used to use a tie tack my mom had made from my grandma's old diamond earings. But like the others, got tired of the holes. With going back to school, I'll be probably be going back to wearing ties again. Will look at the chains and so forth.
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Permalink Reply by Karl Helweg on -
You all are much more protective of your ties than I am. The wiggling through tip sounds wise though.
IF you thought that you might be called upon to stand up and speak in a say legislative session, how "bold" of a tie tack or bar would you wear? Say on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being lean over and squint to see and 10 being a plasma sphere:
I am only about 75% kidding here....
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Permalink Reply by Mike S. on
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I prefer most things to be understated. I tie bar should be a nice compliment to your tie, it shouldn't attract the eye to it though.
so.. ill go with 4.
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Trovato on -
I'm a fan of tie bars; they make me feel Don Draper-esque (although I wore them before the show). I can't say that I'd wear one to an interview, though, only because I'd feel safer dressing as conservatively and simply as possible to avoid any misconceptions (I don't know what misconceptions there would be, but one never knows). But any other day, rock the tie bar.
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