I'm a banker and the policy at work remains that we wear ties Monday through Thursday. Friday is business casual. I'm 50 and have worn the tie for work since 1980. Our Dallas office, though, is business casual all week. When I visit banks, most of the time I dress business casual as they dress. The article is wrong in that, in the banking world the real top dogs, those that went to the Ivy-League schools, still prefer to wear the suit and tie.

With my kilt, I sometimes wear the long tie, with the waistcoat and argyll, especially if I am competing on the pipes. Because I have to wear a suit and tie to work, most of the time I wear a matching MacIntyre tartan tie, as I have 4. But, I'm thinking that in general the long tie should be retired - it's a meaningless piece of cloth. The look of formality can be accomplished by substituting one of those high color shirts that was popular a few years ago. But, those went out of style VERY fast. Right now, there's no good replacement.