Ties are especially ironic because they derived from a time when buttons - made by necessity out of rare items like ivory or whale bone - were expensive as fuck and it was cheaper to close up your neck with a strip of scrap fabric. Most people today can afford plastic buttons.

Of course it will be seen as silly. Most people are just too used to them to see them that way today.

It's like seeing judges wearing wigs and robes. At one point that was just normal formalwear, but it looks really goofy now.

Suit/tie combo has been the focul point of men's fashion longer than any other style(in western culture at least). It's remained more or less the same for over 100 years

Where do you draw the line between black and grey? Dark should mean black or dark grey. Although the reality is that nothing is truly black, one of the closest we've seen is Vanta Black.