In 1994, two Donkey Kong games were released: Donkey Kong for the game boy in June, also known as Donkey Kong 94, and Donkey Kong Country in November. Country took eighteen month to develop, and since the Donkey Kong series had been dormant for some time, Rare was tasked with redesigning the character. According to Gregg Mayles, the red tie comes from a sketch Shigeru Myamoto gave to serve as inspiration. My problem is that Donkey Kong in Donkey Kong 94 already had a red tie!
So which came first? I can't find a timeline of DK 94's development. I found an interview where Shigeru said that he would have liked a Donkey Kong game to be released on the ten year anniversary of Donkey Kong, so in 1991, but it didn't pan out. However, according to Wikipedia (who are quoting Nintendo Power), the game Donkey Kong for the game boy had a working title of Donkey Kong '94. So I don't know if the game started production before or after Donkey Kong Country.
But I have a speculation. This is my new conspiracy theory. My konspiracy theory. DK 94 was in production before Country, so Shigeru Myamoto gave a sketch which included a red tie because he knew DK 94 design would feature one, but didn't want to say anything about a game in production. But I can't confirm it. Konfirm it.