The question why ties and scarves? Or rather why custom ties and custom scarves is a broad question and I need to be a little more specific as to what I actually mean by posing this question.

For many years and I am talking over 100 and up to 200 years in the case of many schools, they have had custom ties as school ties and sometimes custom scarves as school scarves, this has been a big part of the tradition which has grown over the years to include many other ties such as matric ties, club ties, old boys ties etc and is at the point where a certain school I know of has a total of 63 different custom ties as school ties which is quite amazing but yes, they have grown over the years and no doubt 63 is not the end total.

So why would a school want to have such a thing as custom ties as school ties?

Well, there are a number of reasons for this not least of all the following:

Recognition- when wearing their school ties the learners are recognised by outsiders as being a member of a certain school so there is the recognition of that and the fact that this particular person belongs to this school because they are wearing custom ties associated with their school.

Belonging- This is a hugely important word when it comes to the human race not least of all young people trying to make a life and a way forward for them selves, we all want to belong to something whether it’s a club, a church, an association, it doesn’t matter, we need to belong to something. I am sure you have all heard the sating that no man is an island- we simply were not made or created to spend our lives on our own and for that reason it is true that many people in the past when having found themselves in a position of solitary confinement for whatever reason have gone mad or been severely affected for their whole lives by under going this experience and the reason quite simply is that at the end of the day, no man is an island and we are not really meant to try and survive on our own.

Reward/ Achievement- many custom ties and custom scarves are designed as a reward or as a presentation award for achieving a certain goal or award for example, a 1st team tie which can only obviously be worn by a 1st team member or perhaps a choir tie or scarf which by the way are both custom ties and custom scarves and cannot be worn if one is not a member of the choir and actually, this is a perfect example in that this particular custom tie or custom scarf indicates recognition, belonging, reward and achievement.

It is also important to note that custom ties made by tie manufacturers or tie makers can be printed ties or woven ties however custom scarves can only be printed.