“white tie” is a distinct dress code involving a white bowtie. Outside of that, there’s no real history of people wearing white neckwear. This is for a few reasons:
The purpose of a tie in an outfit is generally to bring in new colors and textures. A white cotton shirt, a dark worsted wool suit, and a bright colorful tie with a silky sheen and intricate pattern… There’s a whole history around the British falling in love with paisley and using it as a display of wealth.
It’s very hard to dye silk white (or at least it was, historically). The bowtie in white tie is marcella cotton.
White shirts are the most common. A white necktie would have been hard to pair with most wardrobes, more likely to get dirty (you don’t want to have to get your tie cleaned, it’s a whole thing).
People generally like to layer darker layers over lighter layers. It’s not, as the other user suggested, a “rule,” it’s just a good approach to layering different colors. You put on a shirt, then a tie, then a jacket—white, color, dark—and it’ll probably work. The other way around doesn’t work nearly as consistently.
(I tried posting this from kbin, but apparently lemmy.world defederated with them…)
@Jilanico
“white tie” is a distinct dress code involving a white bowtie. Outside of that, there’s no real history of people wearing white neckwear. This is for a few reasons:
@Jilanico
It’s very hard to dye silk white (or at least it was, historically). The bowtie in white tie is marcella cotton.
White shirts are the most common. A white necktie would have been hard to pair with most wardrobes, more likely to get dirty (you don’t want to have to get your tie cleaned, it’s a whole thing).
@Jilanico
(I tried posting this from kbin, but apparently lemmy.world defederated with them…)