The neck tie was used to keep the shirt top together before the advent of buttons. The collar was invented to hide the part of the tie that goes around the neck (ok, I made that last one up).

What the hell were about bell-bottomed flares for? They're not even nice looking.

What the hell were about bell-bottomed flares for? They were originally made so that your pants wouldn't get caught on your boots. They can still be found pretty easily, but they call them "boot cut" now, since "flares" is too 70's. The giant bell part of it was simple seventies excess, although they did make even my feet look smaller! http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/smile.gif

Um, the button and the collar predate the necktie by some 300 years.

"My all time favorite! "

....and leaning on the the sword.

It must be true, Ricky Gervaise said it was. OK, well at least you can say the neck tie is decorative. The same can't be said for the koshiita unless you can get them with sumptuous embroidery.

Well, my own theory (FWIW, and should be taken with a grain of salt) is that the koshiita was developed to press the kimono to the small of the back, and prevent it from riding up and billowing over the obi/hakama over the course of daily movement. People of the time when hakama were daily wear would often keep things in their sleeves and in the folds of their kimono. The koshiita would prevent things from getting all the way to the back, and messing up one's appearance. See Kikuchiyo fumbling for his lineage scroll in "Seven Samurai".

Hmmm sounds plausible. The Romans kept things like money bags etc in the fold of their togas. The fold where they were kept was called a 'sinus'.

Actually that is extremely common in Kendo...

I don't know about "sumptuous" - I've seen a name and sometimes a flag on national team uniforms.

I just watched Seven Samurai recently actually. I think I can picture the exact scene.

Here is is very common at least at university level to have large golden letters (or rainbow!) with the name of the school or a tournament or even a drawing (one particular 4th year has a chicken playing the taiko). It is equally as common to see hakama with half of Moby Dick embroidered on it.