Vincent Kennedy McMahon, the owner of the WWE, was back at it again over the weekend, inducting the Undertaker into the promotion’s Hall of Fame on Friday night and then taking to the ring on Sunday night in an impromptu match against former NFL punter/Aaron Rodgers BFF Pat McAfee. In each instance, of course, he was wearing one of his signature contrast ties.
During the Hall of Fame ceremony, McMahon kept things clean and simple, pairing his tuxedo with a black and gray contrast tie. Yesterday, however, he reverted to a more festive blue and yellow paisley tie with a solid blue knot.
McMahon’s contrast ties are typically Listerine blue or black. They’re always silky. And always contrast — meaning the knot is one color, typically of the solid variety. While the pattern elsewhere isn’t dissimilar to the carpeting inside of a Vegas casino. Say what you want about wrestling’s supreme overlord — and many have — but the guy is, if nothing else, sartorially consistent. In fact, McMahon has done more for the contrast tie than just about any other public figure.
As far as where they come from, my best guess is the Sunshine State. Specifically, the only ones I could track down are from Palm Beach and the “young-minded team of people” at Paul Malone Palm Beach, who have, “out of the urge to create ties for men that are of the highest quality,” produced these bilateral fabrics since some time in the 1990s.
How much are they? Cheap — really cheap. They can be purchased in just about any combination for $19.97, meaning you can have a different one for every night of Monday Night Raw for months at a time. (McMahon likely has them made for him at a much higher price point.) They have won over at least one wrestling fan. “Vince has been a step or two ahead of men’s fashion the last few years,” wrote a since-deleted redditor who has apparently never heard of the 1980s. “He was one of the first guys I saw whose collar was a different color from the rest of the shirt.”
Actual style experts say that while the contrast spread collar dress shirt is a perfectly acceptable — albeit uber-preppy — sartorial style move, the necktie equivalent comes with less stylistic authority. So it’s heartening to know that not all wrestling fans are hot under the collar for McMahon’s look. “Oh god, he had a (I think) a pink/blue one of the same style on a few weeks ago, it looked hideous like that,” wrote redditor Snerkie on the wrestling subreddit. “Someone needs to help him on his style.”
In fairness, this is a man whose business is more clotheslines than, you know, actual clothes.
Andrew Fiouzi
Andrew Fiouzi is a staff writer at MEL.
