Tartan Day in Balboa Park, San Diego

**Jock Scot** · 17th April 25, 07:58 PM

Originally Posted by AFS1970

I agree with tie etiquette, but there is probably a bit of a grey area. On my one trip across the pond, while in London, I went to a museum for St. John's Ambulance. Had a lovely chat with their Chief of Operations. They were selling a tie for their chivalric order in the gift shop. I didn't buy it, for the very reason that I didn't think it was right, but clearly the order had no problem with it being out there.

Yes there is a grey area and it is well that people are aware of it, but, I think that the last paragraph of my post no 14 of this thread covers this issue and it would have, in my view, been perfectly acceptable for you to buy and wear the tie.

**OC Richard** · 19th April 25, 09:20 PM

Here as far as I know universities don't have a one-and-only official school tie.

Rather, the university 'bookstore' will have a variety of fashion ties.

I quickly looked up WVU (West Virginia University) and found 16 different ties for sale, half in the bookstore, half on Ebay.

I'm guessing that bigger more prestigious universities would have several times this many.

The main things as we see are having the school colours and school logo.

Also common is having the school mascot, but oddly I didn't see any WVU mascot ties currently on sale.

**OC Richard** · 19th April 25, 09:31 PM

Having not attended WVU I don't wear WVU ties, though they're commonly worn in West Virginia by people who didn't attend the university but who are supporters of the football or basketball team. (A vast number of people in the State are WVU supporters and you see people wearing WVU "gear" everywhere.)

Rather I have a small collection of State of West Virginia themed ties, my go-to ties for Highland Dress

**jsrnephdoc** · 19th April 25, 11:19 PM

Originally Posted by OC Richard

Here as far as I know universities don't have a one-and-only official school tie.

Rather, the university 'bookstore' will have a variety of fashion ties.

My point was that the tie has been deprecated as an element of business dress in the US even in stodgy New England that NEITHER Yale University nor Trinity College (also over 200 years old) sell ANY neckties, either striped in the schools' colors or bearing the images of the schools' mascots. That was decidedly not the case when I attended each of the institutions about 5 decades ago.

**Jock Scot** · 20th April 25, 02:56 AM

Just a wee clarification. When we talk about "Old School Ties" we are not talking about the tie that was worn to school for the time actually at school. The "Old School Tie" is usually a completely separate colour scheme altogether.

The College(now a University) that I attended, The Royal Agricultural College(RAC) and as far as I am aware we did not have, thank goodness, an everyday college tie. But I still wear my "old Boys" College tie( and a few others picked up along the way) fairly regularly, although, I note with some disappointment, that the newer RAC ties have the same colours but in different shades.The tie, any tie of that type, does act as a conversation starter when in the company of others. Does that make difference? Well yes it certainly can do, when meeting strangers .

**FossilHunter** · 20th April 25, 09:50 AM

Originally Posted by Jock Scot

Just a wee clarification. When we talk about "Old School Ties" we are not talking about the tie that was worn to school for the time actually at school. The "Old School Tie" is usually a completely separate colour scheme altogether.

The College(now a University) that I attended, The Royal Agricultural College(RAC) and as far as I am aware we did not have, thank goodness, an everyday college tie. But I still wear my "old Boys" College tie( and a few others picked up along the way) fairly regularly, although, I note with some disappointment, that the newer RAC ties have the same colours but in different shades.The tie, any tie of that type, does act as a conversation starter when in the company of others. Does that make difference? Well yes it certainly can do, when meeting strangers .

What’s the difference between and “old school” tie and a school tie? Is one for alumni and the other for current students?

As Richard pointed out, the popularity of college sports muddy the issue quite a bit and it’s not uncommon for those supporting a university team to don the colors of the university regardless of their having studied there or not. Hence most university ties in the US are based on the athletic team logo of the university.

**FossilHunter** · 20th April 25, 09:53 AM

Originally Posted by OC Richard

Here as far as I know universities don't have a one-and-only official school tie.

Rather, the university 'bookstore' will have a variety of fashion ties.

I quickly looked up WVU (West Virginia University) and found 16 different ties for sale, half in the bookstore, half on Ebay.

I'm guessing that bigger more prestigious universities would have several times this many.

The main things as we see are having the school colours and school logo.

Also common is having the school mascot, but oddly I didn't see any WVU mascot ties currently on sale.

There are a couple nice designs there. I like the one with the gold stripes with “West Virginia university” printed in them. More subtle than some of the others. I would happily wear an SDSU tie styled in that manner.

**Jock Scot** · 20th April 25, 11:59 AM

Originally Posted by FossilHunter

What’s the difference between and “old school” tie and a school tie? Is one for alumni and the other for current students?

Alumni is not a word we use over here, well at least I have never come across it, apart that I see it used on this website in the USA, so I am not really certain sure of your terminology. So in Uk terms, a school tie is for, and ONLY, for present pupils and an "old school tie" is for and ONLY, past pupils. The colours used are usually and in my experience, VERY different from each other.

**FossilHunter** · 20th April 25, 12:33 PM

Originally Posted by Jock Scot

Alumni is not a word we use over here, well at least I have never come across it, apart that I see it used on this website in the USA, so I am not really certain sure of your terminology. So in Uk terms, a school tie is for present pupils and an "old school tie" is for past pupils. The colours used are usually and in my experience, VERY different from each other.

In the US, Alumni would be a former student or graduate of a school, college, or university. Wikipedia suggests that it’s more or less synonymous with “old boy” in British English though it’s use may be a little more expansive as it is used for just about any type of school.

Based on your previous post, using American terminology, you would be considered an alumnus of the RAC and I suppose I would be and old boy of San Diego State University.

**Jock Scot** · 20th April 25, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by FossilHunter

In the US, Alumni would be a former student or graduate of a school, college, or university. Wikipedia suggests that it’s more or less synonymous with “old boy” in British English though it’s use may be a little more expansive as it is used for just about any type of school.

Based on your previous post, using American terminology, you would be considered an alumnus of the RAC and I suppose I would be and old boy of San Diego State University.

I think your terminology would not be quite correct for Universities in the UK. I think we would say that we graduated from X university rather than being an "Old boy"!

So imagine you are attending a gathering of fairly ancient(old) ex university students who had qualified from assorted UK universities and in the dim and distant past attended some very smart UK school as well. So there will be several assorted ties on view which one can then also add assorted military ties on show too. I found these events rather trying, but identifying the ties has made the time pass slightly faster, on more than one occasion!