Every awards season brings formalwear to the forefront, and this year’s red carpets have revealed a distinctly non-fancy fashion trend: many leading men are forsaking ties.
At the Golden Globes, notable menswear looks lacking traditional neckwear included “Marty Supreme” star and best actor winner Timothée Chalamet in a three-piece black-velvet outfit by Chrome Hearts, finished with a discreet necklace.
“Hamnet” nominee Paul Mescal wore a wing-collar shirt with a classic tux and subtle lapel pin. Previous nominee and style setter Colman Domingo went with a black Valentino shirt and suit, accented with glittering Boucheron cascading leaves on his left lapel.
There was a time in the none-too-distant past when we red carpet fashion reporters relegated the men to footnotes. Black tux, white shirt, black tie: check! That has, until recently, been the default leading-man wardrobe.
“Black tie was always so easy for men, and so difficult for women,” Toronto fashion buyer Nicholas Mellamphy said. But now, almost anything goes.
At the Grammys, granted a less buttoned-up affair, the best-dressed men let their necks be free. Pharrell wore a pink velvet tieless tux by Louis Vuitton, where he is the menswear designer. Justin Bieber layered a black T-shirt under a double-breasted black Balenciaga suit. Harry Styles donned a Dior sequinned blazer with no shirt, let alone a tie.
The process of relaxing the stuffed shirt of men’s formal wear has been underway for a few years now — and results have been varied, falling along a spectrum from bold personal expression to lazy sloppiness.
The apex of creativity came in 2019, when red carpets exploded with colour, excitement and originality. That was the year Chalamet wore a black sequined harness by the late Virgil Abloh for Louis Vuitton in lieu of a tux jacket to the Golden Globes. Billy Porter wore a Christian Siriano velvet tuxedo dress with full ball skirt to the Oscars. And Styles made headlines with a transparent pussy-bow blouse by Gucci by Alessandro Michele that was discussed as a “free the nipple” moment for men.
“It was the guys who were taking the risks who were getting noticed,” said Toronto-based stylist Peter Papapetrou. And in the multimedia age, where everyone has a camera and a broadcast outlet, whether it’s a podcast or a TikTok account, “standing out” is the rhyme and reason of film publicity. If a picture doesn’t go viral, is its subject even a star?
But it’s not essential to pull a fashion stunt to look modern. “Think Connor Storrie at the Golden Globes,” said Papapetrou.
The “Heated Rivalry” star wore a YSL tux that appeared traditional at first glance, but the outfit’s details combined for a true fashion moment: a skinny tie, cinched-waist cummerbund that “makes the shoulders look even broader,” Tiffany & Co. “bird on a rock” pin and a mullet hairstyle inspired by Kurt Cobain’s mug shot.
Storrie’s co-star Hudson Williams contributed to the to-tie-or-not-to-tie dialogue in a white Armani jacket and wide black trousers, worn with a cummerbund and a white satin shirt left deeply unbuttoned to reveal a Bulgari Serpenti necklace. The open collar heralded a new androgynous zone: the male neck.
“Women have been objectified for centuries. All of a sudden, we are objectifying the male body,” said Mellamphy. “Connor and Hudson have the perfect silhouettes for fashion. They are using fashion to subvert conversation about their sexuality. The idea of masculinity has changed. People are more comfortable with softer dressing for men, with colour, print and embellishment, and daring necklines.”
This surge in red carpet style has “opened the door for all men to play a bit more,” said Papapetrou, whether it’s for special occasions or daily life. That means more shopping: global menswear sales have jumped 29 per cent to $455 billion (USD) since 2020, according to Business of Fashion.
So what can men take away from the tie-free trend? You can choose not to wear a tie to a formal event, but if you do, everything else has to be levelled up, said Papapetrou. “You can’t go out in a Bay Street suit and add a silk pocket square and think that is going to elevate it to black tie.”
A tieless suit can come off as sloppy, as if you got overheated on the dance floor and/or were overserved.
Red carpet “worst dressed” lists were buried with Joan Rivers, but there were a few guys at the Golden Globes and Grammys who looked like they were on their way home rather than on their way out: Newly blond “Stranger Things” actor Joe Keery in a white dinner jacket with a plain white shirt; “Sentimental Value” winner Stellan Skarsgård in an unbuttoned white shirt under a black suit.
If you forgo a tie, the shirt collar matters. Look for collarless dress shirts, generally either mandarin finished or wing-collar; the little flipped-up collar traditionally worn with a bow tie, alongside spread collars and semi-spread collars.
Texture can help. “Satin and patent are the key,” said Papapetrou. “Take a black velvet suit and a black satin shirt and a diamond necklace and patent shoes and you don’t need a tie.” And tailor, tailor, tailor. The looks we see on male celebrities reflect meticulous fittings for the perfect cut.
But the casualization of fashion is an unstoppable force that men are going to have to reckon with. “Dress codes as we know them are dying. Sneakers and suits are the new normal,” said Justin Mastine-Frost of Sharp men’s fashion magazine. “While traditional tailoring is still alive and well, the idea that ‘dressing up’ equates to a suit and a tie is falling away.”
It doesn’t always work. “The deliberate ‘I’m too cool and casual’ energy can occasionally feel a bit forced,” said Mastine-Frost. But in general, this expansion of dress codes is a step forward for menswear. “In most cases, these more casual looks are still thoughtfully executed and memorable. I will give far more credit to someone who chooses to wear something unorthodox that’s finely tailored, thoughtful and cohesive than I will to someone who walks the carpet in a boring tux that isn’t fitting them right.”
So go ahead, take off the tie. But be warned: It actually takes a lot of work to look casual.
