I knew that I would eventually break down and put on a tie while working from home. All of the ingredients were there. I like ties, I can’t wear one at the office, add in the the monotonous boredom of working from home alone in a small apartment with no outdoor space, and you have yourself a pretty solid recipe. The question became, which tie?

I generally shy away from ties with crests or affiliations that I have no affiliation with, but I do have a few of them. I was glad that I did because this blue crested tie worked out really well. Navy was the perfect color as it took the place of a blazer and grounded the look. It didn’t look too out of place without a jacket as some of the others that I tried out and the crests added a little pop of a color so that the tie didn’t get lost in the blue of the shirt.

Now that I had the tie figured out I needed to attend to the shoes. I wanted the look to make sense even though wearing a tie while working from home doesn’t make all that much sense. Penny loafers looked to formal to my eye so I lost the socks and went with some Eastland camp mocs. I liked the moc look and rolled with it.

There you have my balancing act. I wore a tie without a jacket in the most informal setting imaginable which is working from my couch and I think it looked pretty good. This crested navy tie walked a fine line. It was subdued enough to lay low against a flap pocket OCBD while the crests added just enough whimsy to make it fun while the camp mocs balanced out the bottom half. The most important part of all of this effort was that I had fun. Something that is hard to come by these days.