Despite the dressing-down trend, men are still accessorizing, says Toronto-based fashion writer David Livingstone. “Men are wearing more ascots and,” he says. “You see guys walking around with these scarves, skinny little raggy things, wrapped around their necks. It’s a way to decorate the neck, a way of finishing things off the way a tie might.” Being relegated to the closet-or replaced by a scarf-is a sad twist for such a  Night moves prom   celebrated . According to the proudly Croatian Internet site Academia Cravatica, the tie began its life in 1618, around the necks of that country’s mercenaries fighting in the Thirty Years War.









French King Louis XIV hipped to the style, and the rest is history. The necktie trend reached its apex in the 1980s, when it was a mark of success as obvious as the shoulder pads in suits were big. L.A. Law’s Arnie Becker, Wall Street’s Gordon Gekko, Dallas’s J.R. Ewing: their ties seemed less a dress code than an extension of their Strapless  vintage prom dresses   Sweetheart Neckline Pink Prom Dress. Open collars were for Thirtysomething types, men with feelings and hang-ups and self-doubts; the tie was as raw and conspicuous as a bloody steak. Fast forward a couple of decades and the trend has reversed. Real men-the ones with fangs, like Bill Compton of True Blood, or satchels full of knives like Dexter’s Dexter