Dawn wrote:
Kate Pinner wrote:
I realize it's now passe, but I'm doing a production of "Angels in
America"
that takes place in 1985-86.
That's too early for yellow. In the mid/late 80's the power tie was red,
either a solid red or the striped one, occasionally a tiny print. I went
to work in the bank district in Boston in 87, and anyone who was anyone
wore a black suit with a red tie. Women wore brightly printed power
scarves. I still have mine in the closet.
I don't think yellow came in until the 90's.
In my experience, '80s is exactly right. I worked in an educational
association office in Washington in 1984-88, and I remember the day one of our
VPs first showed up in a yellow tie. Everyone made good-natured jokes about
how cutting-edge it was and how he'd picked up on the new fad of the
lawyerly/lobbying types in the neighborhood. After that, I seemed to see them
everywhere.
BTW, the yellow ties weren't very bright, at least not the ones I saw. They
were a sort of dull yellow background with an all-over pattern of tiny dots or
paisley shapes (I think the pattern is called "pine" in tie lingo). I remember
it seemed the ugliest thing I'd ever seen, but after a while I got used to it.
I left that office in 1988, so this had to have occurred by then. I returned
in 1990 and went to work in a government office. My boss there NEVER wore
yellow ties, and I don't remember any from that time at all.
The way to answer this, of course, would be to hit a library that still has
hardcopy magazine collections. Look over back issues Time and Newsweek to see
pix of the power brokers, and you should run into the period of Yellow Ties
Everywhere. Another option is a men's fashion magazine like GQ, but I wonder
if this was more of an "office" thing done in real-life practice, rather than
something that the fashion houses promoted.
--Robin
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