I was out for dinner the other night at a restaurant when I noticed a young man wearing a tie. Amid a swathe of men of all ages, many of them quite stylish, in relaxed shirts and chore jackets, T-shirts and jumpers, here was someone who was Dressed Up. He was wearing what looked like a vintage suit in dark brown wool, a white Oxford shirt and a green silk tie with a bit of a pattern. It stood out.

You don’t need me to tell you that the tie’s popularity is, and has been for many years, on the wane. Offices no longer require them, while politicians have shunned them in favour of too-tight cutaway-collar shirts and a matching grimace. Don’t even think about trying to enter a Soho House wearing a tie, because they won’t let you in.

While most men zig, a handful of influential designers and tasteful wearers of clothes zag. On the runway for his debut Gucci show, the mononymous Demna showed broad-shouldered, double-breasted tailoring featuring lots of block-colour ties. CELINE’s Michael Rider seems to favour a colourful silk repp stripe with oversized tailoring and denim, perhaps a nod to his previous work at Ralph Lauren. Lauren himself famously made his name hawking ties and remains committed to them as a symbol of prep and aspirational Americana, continuous proof that a tie can be smart or playful or just a way to show off a bit. Haider Ackermann’s new reign at TOM FORD is full of big, bright striped ties, alongside more restrained polka dots.

“The tie has never gone away for us,” says Michael Hill of Drake’s, one of the few names to still make their ties by hand in London, with silk sourced from Como and Macclesfield. “We started out making ties in 1977 and we still see them as core to what we do at Drake’s. I see them as a way to both bring an outfit together and to add something extra. Wearing a tie makes me feel put together, and maybe even a little bit more confident?”

While the general menswear consensus is to wear a sober dark tie with minimal detailing against a plain, light-coloured shirt, I’m more interested in acts of rebellion when it comes to neckwear. With the resurgence of prep and Ivy dressing, we’re also seeing a bit more experimentation when it comes to the way that ties are deployed. They’re at their best when used as a statement, rather than a meek acquiescence to a dress code.

Drake’s, Missoni, Rubinacci, Paul Smith and even Charvet, the world’s first ever shirt shop, but also something of an expert in the tie department, are turning out ties in luxury silk with a bit of flair. You don’t want to look like a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman from 1989… But you might as well have a bit of fun with it, right?

The fact is, no one really needs to wear a tie anymore, which is even more reason to wear one. A subtle act of style rebellion. You’re bound to get a few barbs thrown your way like, “When’s the job interview?” Who cares?

As the great menswear writer and overall expert on getting dressed, G Bruce Boyer says, “A man should have a strategic neckwear wardrobe. Not because it’s a necessary uniform, but because it’s a telling adjunct, the sort of thing that gets noticed.”