Ancient black tie

Greetings!

As far back as I can remember, I've been a fan of ties since my early teenage years, and this wasn't influenced by school because our school did not use ties as part of the dress code. I adopted the dressing style when I got involved in church activities, where corporate dressing was one of the things I was introduced to.

The tie you're seeing above was worth N200 ($0.125 using the current dollar rate @N1,600), and I can't precisely recall the year I bought it, but I'm sure it was during my secondary school days. And hey, it wasn't from a thrift store; it was from a boutique! That goes to show how cheap things were then compared to now.

I've been using this tie ever since, and to this day, it's still very useful. I call it my "everlasting tie" because it's always my go-to whenever I want to wear something that fits with a long tie, especially on church days.

For those familiar with ties—particularly men, and possibly women who have husbands or male siblings that wear ties—you'll agree with me that the black tie is the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time) tie. It fits in everywhere, I mean literally every situation because you can even pair it with a black shirt.

This tie has saved me a lot of stress. For instance, there have been times when, after putting on my shirt and trousers, I find myself rumbling through my collection of ties, trying to pick one. I actually have some other colors, but after spending about five minutes trying to decide, I often feel that the other colors would look odd. At that point, this black tie becomes the final destination, and it never fails to give me that well-blended fashion satisfaction.

As I've mentioned before in previous posts, I'm an usher in my church, and our group uses dress codes for each officiating Sunday. Many times, when I don’t have the uniform or tie for a particular Sunday, the black tie comes to the rescue. It matches with anything, and it’s always acceptable because it's practically a universal option. Yes, whenever I wear the black tie, I don’t get any questions. But if I go with another color, I might get some comments. Funny enough, it's this same black tie I bought many years ago that’s still serving the purpose.

One funny thing about me and ties is that I'm very bad at tying them, so I usually ask a specialist to knot it for me. I don’t dare loosen it, even when washing it, and that’s how I keep wearing it. The current knot it has has been there for so long that I can’t even remember when it was last fixed. It’s been years, and I’ve been using it like that over the years.

I would really love to have a guy who relates to my experience come and read this so we can share stories. 😅

Thanks for reading.

This is my entry to #stylishsaturday prompt

All photos used are mine