The Tie Returns, Off Duty
Ties are back on the runways, but the version worth adopting is softer, tonal and worn with knitwear.
The tie has been quietly rehabilitated. It featured heavily in the autumn/winter 2026 men’s shows, and how it was worn matters more than the fact of its return. Coveteur named tonal ties one of the season’s defining menswear trends: Louis Vuitton matched navy ties to navy shirts and layered ties over button-up knitwear, Ralph Lauren cut shirt and tie from the same grey check, and Pronounce paired a brown button-down with a chocolate silk tie. Numéro noted ties slipping under coats or half disappearing into trousers at Sacai, Dries Van Noten and Giorgio Armani.
Brunello Cucinelli, more conservatively, styled ties with his blazers as a considered accent. And in launching Permanent Style’s autumn overshirt in September, Simon Crompton suggested wearing it in place of a jacket, over a shirt and knitted tie.
## The off-duty tie, in practice
- Choose texture over shine: knitted silk, wool, cashmere or grenadine.
- Go tonal. A brown tie on an ecru or brown shirt, navy on chambray, grey on grey.
- Wear it with knitwear. A tie under a crewneck or cardigan, with only the knot showing, is the easiest way in.
- Keep the knot small and slightly relaxed; a four-in-hand is enough.
- Surround it with soft clothes: denim or oxford shirts, overshirts, flannel trousers, suede shoes.
The result is not a return to office uniform. It is closer to how Italian and English tailors dress on their own time, and why a maker like Drake’s, which began with ties, never stopped making them. Worn this way, a tie stops signaling obligation and starts signaling attention.
