In the 1990s, a menswear store used to sell three dozen ties a week. Now they sell roughly a third of that, as workwear becomes "more casual".
The requirement for formal attire at work came into question recently, after Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi was booted out of Parliament on Tuesday for refusing to wear a tie.
Richard Harford, owner of Harford Menswear in Wellington's Lambton Quay, said tie sales are maybe a third of what they were in the 1990s.
"Gone are the days where we would sell three dozen ties a week. Now we would probably sell, on a good week, a dozen," he said.