Channeling Cary Grant

Men’s neckwear has taken a turn toward the nostalgic with skinny ties at the throats of hipsters.

But is the typical male ready to go really retro with an ascot?

“American Idol “contender Michael Johns sang a bluesy number last week while wearing a pink-and-purple Alexander McQueen ascot, chosen by “Idol” stylist Miles Siggins.

The contestants need “a recognizable brand, and I was thinking dandy rocker,” says Siggins, who picked out a vintage ascot for Johns to wear this week.

Brendon Urie of Panic at the Disco sported an ascot during a performance on “Saturday Night Live” last weekend. Soccer/style ace David Beckham has been seen wearing an ascot, channeling Cary Grant, who embraced the style as if he were born with it.

The character Chuck Bass on CW’s “Gossip Girl,” about New York Upper East Side rich kids, wears an ascot with his natty blazers. Even prankster Ashton Kutcher has been seen in an ascot-y scarf.

Narrow ties remind young guys of what their fathers and grandfathers wore in the hip old days, says Todd Snyder, head of men’s design for collegiate/preppie-oriented J. Crew, where skinny ties have sold well at $49.50 up to $72.

“It updates an outfit and gives a cool point of view, a late ‘50s, early ‘60s, young-JFK kind of feel,” says Snyder, who has seen ties narrow from 3 inches wide to 2 inches in the past four years.

But ascots? They’re for “a certain sophisticated type,” designer Tommy Hilfiger says.

Especially in Europe and Japan, ascots or ascot-like scarves have been “appropriated by some cool young people who are wearing them with jeans and under T-shirts as an on-the-edge fashion statement,” says Mark-Evan Blackman, chairman of menswear design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

“Idol” could be influential, Siggins says, calling it “the accessible style icon.”

Still, ascots are more extreme than even bow ties, says Meg Rush, author of The Charming Dandy blog, which advises men on fashion.

“Skinny ties are almost entirely mainstream in a way that can’t be envisioned anytime soon for ascots,” Rush says. “It would take a great deal more exposure on TV and on celebrities.”