history of neckties

I was watching/listening to the commentaries on all three of the Back to the Future movies a few weeks ago (stay with me- I have a point!), and the producers were talking about the creative ideas they had with ties for the second and third movies. In one scene they have a guy wearing a clear plastic tie, and in another, a guy is wearing two ties, side-by-side. (Or maybe it was two clear plastic ties? ) Anyway, they said they were criticized for the clear plastic tie thing- as in, "what is the point?" But, they countered, what is the point of a tie at all?

Brilliant! Because there is no point except decoration to a necktie anyway! I even looked it up on Wikipedia (which, as we all know, is the leading authority on just about everything), and it gives no purpose for a tie. I mean, it isn't like the tie holds your shirt on, like a belt and your trousers. It's there to look professional or stylish.

Wikipedia doesn't say this, but I am sure there was a woman behind the history of the tie. Some short woman who needed an easier way to kiss her much-taller husband, perhaps..... "Honey, why don't you wear this long skinny scarf? and you could tie it like this?"

There! The tie started out with a purpose!