All of my sons are married, but only the youngest wore a tie on his wedding day. I try to persuade myself that one out of three isn't bad, but I suspect my eldest son does not possess a tie, while the middle son is compelled to own one as part of his army dress uniform. I doubt he has another.
Added to this, I observe glazed expressions whenever I mention my school uniform and my ability to tie a half-Windsor knot five times a week for six years. I know my attitude is a dated one (I can remember studs and detachable collars, for goodness' sake!), but to me a tie signals respectability, professionalism, membership of a group, and sometimes the acknowledgement of an important occasion.
I've had to learn that matters are more complicated, however. My doctor cousin now favours bow ties after a patient complained that conventional ones tickle the tummy during medical examinations. James Bond thought the man who favoured a Windsor knot was almost bound to be a cad, while the theocracy of Iran considers the necktie a symbol of European oppression.
We tend to think the removal of ties signals relaxation, but I once knew an old Greek woman who used to upbraid her sartorially elegant teacher son after school: 'Get that tie off, and get started on some proper work.' She wanted him out in the olive groves, not occupying himself with the correction of quadratic equations.
Ties as we know them became popular in the 17th century, when western Europeans decided they rather liked the strips of cloth that Croatian mercenaries wore round their necks. Of course there were popular variations like stocks, jabots and cravats, and in the width, design and colour of ties.
Ties boomed during the 19th century Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement, and are still popular with men who aspire to be well-dressed. The manager of England's football team, Gareth Southgate, for example, is never without a tie, although his waistcoats seem to draw more comment.
Collars and ties, or lack of them, can also have a specific political application. In 2007 Robert Mugabe, fearsome Zimbabwean dictator, was invited to an EU summit in Lisbon. Gordon Brown, then prime minister of Britain, was so incensed that he refused to take part. The flamboyant Anglican Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, was similarly enraged, and cut up his clerical collar in public on the BBC's Andrew Marr current