These days, with most offices resorting to a "dress casual" dress code (which translates into khakis and a polo shirt), many of us are completely inept when it comes to wearing ties. Sure, we may have been forced to learn how to tie one back in high school, and that comes in handy from time to time, but the real trick is matching your tie to your shirt.

And no, white shirts don't count. Every tie matches with a white shirt. This is for times when you want to get a little adventurous with your color choices, but don't want to look color-blind in the process. For a very helpful answer to this pressing question, we turn to Ryan Sovereign, one of the designers behind Sovereign Black neckwear:

"Generally, a tie should either totally match the shirt, like when you buy those tie/shirt combo's at Kmart, or it shouldn't match at all. I most often go with light pink, light blue or white...the safe route."

And if you want to get really crazy, try matching a patterned shirt and tie. For tips on how to accomplish this Herculean task, check out these tips from style blog omiru.