Tie clips - Mad Men bringing them back!

It seems that I am seeing tie clips everywhere!  I guess they're officially back?  Of course, popularity in an old or new fashion occasionally is driven from Hollywood.  So I'd give these guys below some of the credit.  The folks at Mad Men have brought the sixties "mod" look clearly back into vogue and you can see the look represented in many mainstream collections today.  I'll bet many of you have pictures of your grandfather with a very nice clip representation.

Our well-dressed buddy Gordon Gekko also donned a tie clip, but wore his fashionably at an angle.

I personally don't own a tie clip but think there might be a hunt started today for a nice one.  For those of you who may wonder what a tie clip looks like, here's a picture to get us started.

The clip represented in the picture is very basic, which is actually what I think I will be purchasing.  Obviously, the tie clip was originally fashioned to keep one's tie in place without flopping about as one walked, bent over, cooked or made love.

Just to help us with definition, here's what our Wikipedia friends say:

There have been many forms of tie-control devised since the 19th century, when ties first became a regular part of fashion. Clips, chains, pins have all been used to do one simple thing: to keep a tie from flapping, falling or otherwise presenting anything other than a neat appearance. A tie clip (also tie slide, tie bar, or tie clasp) is just one form of a neckwear accessory that clips a tie to the underlying shirt front, preventing it from swinging and ensuring the tie hangs straight, resulting in a neat, uniform appearance. Rising to prominence in the 1920s, the tie bar gradually replaced the tie pin.
Tie clips are usually made of metal and often have minor decorative patterns. Some tie clips have a small badge indicating membership to a club or an affiliation in the same way that ties themselves often have, or some other commemorative token. Occasionally, tie clips made of leather or chain are seen.

So now that we know why we wear them, here are some other examples:

  

As I was looking for pictures I came across literally hundreds of different varieties.  After all that, I think I'll stick with a basic flat silver clip that I'll wear with a Gekko angle.  I'll provide a quick post when I pick one up.  Until then, I hope you enjoyed this run down memory lane and a look at an old/new way to dandy-up your wardrobe.