All tied up: alternatives to the traditional tie this festive season

Forget foulards and ditch the dicky – designers are proposing a host of alternatives to traditional neck-gear and it looks unexpectedly chic

The choice of men’s neckwear has traditionally been narrow: literally and figuratively. You have the straight and narrow of the traditional tie: in myriad colours, sure, but little design differentiation other than that. Then, the bow tie – staidly elegant for evening, self-consciously eccentric for day, never acceptable in the bright hues and garish patterns so often sported. The cravat is a no-go outside of a period drama or a Home Counties wedding.

No wonder many men have eschewed neckwear entirely for the open-necked shirt with even the most formal of attire - French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy leaps to mind. You have Tom Ford and his permanently prominent triangle of chest-hair from 1995-2004 to thank for that enduring touch of deshabille.

So those are the choices: to tie, or not to tie. This season, designers are proposing something entirely different. Oddly enough, it came from Ford’s old stomping-ground, the Italian label Gucci, where new blood Alessandro Michele opted for androgyny over the hypersexual in his unofficial first show, for autumn/winter, back in January. In layman’s terms, he buttoned up those Gucci shirts. But instead of knotting a tie tightly at the top, he opted for all manner of alternatives: a flower clasping the collar shut, a matchy-matchy pussy-bow, a trailing silk scarf, or a simple bow of grosgrain ribbon, priced at £150. They flew out when they became available – Harry Styles wore one, which is maybe why. Or perhaps blokes were just happy to have an alternative?

Other designers followed suit, and it was interesting how many teamed them with suits, making the options seem wearable. Tomas Maier’s models wore narrow silk scarves knotted at their throats, under open-necked shirts or fine-gauge sweaters; Kim Jones, the men’s style director of Louis Vuitton, lassoed the models in his spring show with graphic scarves, foppishly coiled around their slender windpipes in place of an evening dickey or daytime foulard. They looked lean, slick and Bowie-cool.

Those are easily emulated – scarves and neckerchiefs proliferate, knotted in or out of a shirt, while a grosgrain ribbon can Gucci-fy any shirt, shop-bought for a fraction of the price. The most important element? Invention. These designer options open the field for men to sport something a bit more innovative about their neck this winter party season.