I have in my closet two Paisley patterned ties. One of those I adore, but it’s an insanely expensive piece that I wear only gingerly for fear it’ll be damaged or spotted, so it emerges on occasion. The other isn’t one with which I’m in love, but it works in a pinch.
I’m bringing Paisley back if I’m the only one who’ll do it. I’ve missed having a couple of tasteful Paisleys in my tie collection for years, and the result is that I’ve been subjected to a wide series of otherwise boring ties and patterns that frankly just make wearing a tie an unpleasant experience. During the past decade, we’ve gone from gold to purple to pink in the slow wink of an eye, and I’ve chosen to sit out the pink period — all of them look too much like a poor imitation of Donald Trump, who’s retail clothing line seems to extol the virtues of pink as well. Somewhere around the early 90′s, we lost Paisley to the same fashionistas that brought us the grunge look. These were the same ones who felt the lower “Italian-cut” buttoning on jackets was dated by the close of the 90′s, instead stitching us into 3 and 4-button straight-jacket suits that left no room for us to bother noticing the horribly drab ties that were making their way onto store shelves.
Not to mention that most American men look more like a pin-striped version of The Michelin Man in a 3 or 4-button suit, so as our waistlines have expanded, we probably could have used a little leeway on not trying to make us look like we’re being dressed in something from a boutique mental asylum that looks as uncomfortable as it actually is…but I digress.
The last Paisley I loved? There were two, I wore both out. One a burgundy small-patterned design that was tastefully done in fabric (not silk). The other was a Land’s End when they had at least one Paisley if not more. In retrospect, I’m sorry I didn’t buy more for the coming Paisley drought since I wore out that one as well.
That’s why it was nice to see some form of Paisley slowly inching its way back onto store shelves and displacing Barbie-girl pink to the depths of closeout racks on which they truly belong. In addition to some other retail therapy to which I treated myself this weekend, I added another three Paisley’s to my collection with the hopes that the trend won’t fade away as quickly as it once did.
So why Paisley? It’s unique. It’s elegant. It’s understated if done right, but exudes a certain style of its own. It’s also a great combination to wear with nearly any suit since it generally combines a melange of colors in a visual palette. And they’re simply more fun than more designer’s idea of a boring check or polka-dot pattern, or simple stripes and solids. Give a normal suit the right Paisley tie, and it becomes a much different suit. That same suit with a solid color looks more like a Parochial School uniform.
Fashion is a phase anyway, and I’m glad to see it inching back a bit more toward the classics with a more elegant flair.
Now if we could just move away from the wide-spread collars that require over-sized and bulky Windsor knots and back to a more slimming point collar that can use a tie-bar (remember those?), someone will have done the fashion world a favor.
One can only hope.
I'm Andrew Buck, the man behind the words. I'm a published author, project management practitioner for over 20 years, work on Wall Street, and am a fragrance aficionado. I've had a passion for fragrance for 30+ years, and enjoy trying scents and adding to an expanding and rotating collection for some time now. This site is dedicated not only to fragrance, but also to the notion that quality matters now more than ever. 
