What is the purpose of a tie? I could understand how it makes you look presentable and all but WHY this piece of cloth hanging from my neck? Does it do something particularly special for my look? Why is it only proper for men to wear a suit and tie to fancy places but women can wear all kinds of different clothes?

Type "history of the tie" into goole and you'll get a number of results, including this one

Thanks. That is an informative site.

I've even heard men say that the tie is also uncomfortable. A tie makes a man look very distinguished, but I like the casual look. To many, the hard part is learning how to tie one.

It ought not to be uncomfortable. It will be if the shirt is not a perfect fit though. That said, remember that the modern tie originates in England where the climate is temperate (i.e the difference between Summer and Winter is that the rain is colder in Winter) . It is quite possible to wear a tie and still be comfortable on our best Summer days . That is not something you'll see being done in the South of France beyond late Spring .In fact, it is the distinguishing feature of those visiting from Northern Europe at any time after May Day.

Well, I'm a little late in responding to this post but I really have only just seen it.
The point made in your first and second sentences, Fred, sums it up to absolute perfection. A tie certainly need not be uncomfortable (I wear one often enough, believe me), yet men frequently find that wearing a tie IS very uncomforable. Why?

The answer is that not everyone has a perfect size 15 and a half inch neck (or whatever), just as few women are a "perfect size 10 dress" (or whatever). So whadderyer do?

Sometimes you opt for a size 15 instead of a 15 and a half because your upper body is more in tune with a less voluminous shirt(remember that opting for a bigger collar size, in this example a size 16 inch collar) adds not only to the collar zize but also to the chest and waist and arm measurements too. Men with big necks just aren't supposed to be anything but barrel chested it seems, and men with thin necks are deemed to be pre-Charles Atlas specimens chest-wise.

For some, therefore, the choice is between a) wearing a tie with the top button undone because the neck size of your shirt isn't big enough (you can get away with this sometimes but not always; often, that crumpled-up look previals around the knot of the tie) or b) going for the bigger size and keeping your jacket on all day (that's because if you discard it for just one minute, everybody will fall about laughing at the tent over your shoulders).

When I was in my twenties I could go into a high-street shop such as "Lord John" in the Westgate Centre in Oxford (is it stimlll there?) and buy a perfect size 36-inch-chest suit. And, lucky me, the jacket and the trousers would fit perfectly because I fitted the bill. Nowadays, we note, mix and match is the norm, and we're all the happier for that. Would that the world of the shirt were the same.