One of my profs at LU said that our dress code (long since changed) had everything to do with the counter-culture movement in the 60's and 70's- - "If they'd been wearing pinstripe suits and crew cuts, rest assured dress code would be jeans and t-shirts"

I have no reason to doubt him.

A Tie has got to be one of the most useless articles of clothing in the known universe. . . it's like a. . . defective scarf or something.