Black tie is a dress code for formal evening events, and is worn to many types of social functions. For a man, the major component is a jacket, known as a dinner jacket (British) or tuxedo (Canada and the U.S.), which is usually black but is also seen in midnight blue. A woman's corresponding evening dress ranges from a conservative cocktail dress to the long evening gown, determined by current fashion, local custom, and the occasion's time.
The term tuxedo is itself variously used in different parts of the world. It always refers to some form of dinner jacket, and sees most use in North America, where the term originated. There, it is commonly taken to mean a modern variation on the traditional black tie, while in Britain, it is sometimes used to refer to the white jacket alternative.
History
Black tie dates from 1860, when Henry Poole & Co. (Savile Row's founders), created a short smoking jacket for the then Prince of Wales (later Edward VII of the United Kingdom) to wear to informal dinner parties as an alternative to white tie, the standard formal dress. At that time, lounge suits were starting to be worn in the country, and the new dress code was an evening lounge suit intended for use in a relaxed atmosphere out of town.
In the spring of 1886, the Prince invited James Potter, a rich New Yorker and his wife, Cora Potter, to Sandringham House, his Norfolk hunting estate. When Potter asked the Prince's dinner dress recommendation, he sent Potter to Henry Poole & Co., in London. On returning to New York in 1886, Potter's dinner suit proved popular at the Tuxedo Park Club; the club men copied him, soon making it their informal dining uniform. The evening dress for men now popularly known as a tuxedo takes its name from Tuxedo Park, where it was said to have been worn for the first time in the United States, by Griswald Lorillard at the annual Autumn Ball of the Tuxedo Club founded by Pierre Lorillard IV, and thereafter became popular for formal dress in America. Legend dictates that it became known as the tuxedo when a fellow asked another at the Autumn Ball, "Why does that man's jacket not have coattails on it?" The other answered, "He is from Tuxedo Park." The first gentleman misinterpreted and told all of his friends that he saw a man wearing a jacket without coattails called a tuxedo, not from Tuxedo.
While the Americans initially called the new garment a tuxedo , the term has since been inaccurately used, particularly in America, to denote any form of formal or semi-formal dress including white tie, morning dress, and strollers. Two years later, it gained the name dinner jacket (DJ) in Britain, a name it has also kept in the North-Eastern U.S.
The elements of black tie
Unlike white tie, which is very strictly regulated, black-tie ensembles can display more variation. In brief, the traditional components are:
- A jacket with silk facings (usually grosgrain or satin), called the dinner jacket
- Trousers with silk braids matching the lapels
- A black cummerbund or low-cut waistcoat
- A white dress shirt with either a marcella (piqué cotton), stiff, or pleated front
- A black silk bow tie
- Black dress socks, usually silk
- Black shoes in patent or highly polished leather, or patent leather court shoes
Jacket
The typical black-tie jacket is single-breasted, ventless, and black or midnight-blue; usually of wool or a wool–mohair blend. Double breasted models are less common, but are equally acceptable. The lapels may be faced with silk in either a grosgrain or a satin weave. Traditionally there are two lapel options, the shawl collar, derived from the smoking jacket, and the peak lapel, from the tailcoat. The former is older, while the latter is considered more formal. A third lapel style, the notched lapel, has only recently gained popularity, and has been accepted by some as "a legitimate ... less formal alternative," although, despite some precedent, it is disdained by purists for its lounge suit derivation. In France, and elsewhere, the jacket is called le smoking , the shawl-collared version is le smoking Deauville , while the peaked-lapel version is le smoking Capri .
The double-breasted jacket is slightly more modern than the single-breasted, and less formal; while it was originally considered acceptable only for wear at home (similarly to Prince Albert slippers or a smoking jacket), it is now equally correct in all situations, though traditional rules regarding slightly different selections of accessories may be followed. While more common with a peaked lapel, a shawl lapel is appropriate. All buttons that can be done up, are, including any inner ones which might normally be left undone on a double-breasted lounge suit. While two-button variants are sometimes seen, the traditional single-breasted jacket has a one-button closure.
Black was known to take on a green hue in early artificial lights, hence midnight blue was introduced by the Prince of Wales (later Duke of Windsor), and remains the only acceptable alternative colour for the standard dinner jacket.
The white dinner jacket is often worn in warm climates. It is usually ivory in colour rather than pure white, and does not have silk-faced lapels. It is worn with exactly the same clothes as a normal jacket, except for the most formal variations (such as a winged collar). In the U.S. and Canada a white dinner jacket is traditionally worn only from Memorial Day in the spring to Labor Day. (This rule applies also to white summer clothes, including shoes and suits.) In the UK, the traditional rule is that white dinner jackets are never worn, even on the hottest day of summer, but are reserved for wear abroad. Some exceptions to these rules are, in America, its use in high-school proms, and in Britain some concerts, famously for instance the Last Night. In other tropical climates, such as in Imperial Burma, the less formal colour was desert fawn.
A second alternative to the standard jacket is the smoking jacket, a less formal velvet jacket with a shawl lapel and silk frogging. As a house coat, it is correct to choose to not wear everything else required for full black tie under the smoking jacket.
It is poor manners for a man to remove his jacket during a formal social event, but when hot weather and humidity dictate, the ranking man (of the royal family, the guest of honour) may give men permission by noticeably taking off his jacket. In anticipated hot weather Red Sea rig is specified in the invitation, although this dress is esoteric in civilian circles, and is particular to certain expatriate communities.
Trousers
Black tie trousers have no turn-ups (cuffs) or belt loops. The outer seams are usually decorated with a single silk braid matching the lapel facing. Customarily, braces (suspenders) hold up the trousers; they are hidden by the waistcoat (if worn) or by the coat. The trousers traditionally feature a pleated front, flat-front trousers being a modern innovation in this context.
Waistcoat or cummerbund
The waist is dressed in either a waistcoat ( vest in American and Canadian English) or a cummerbund when wearing a single-breasted coat. The waistcoat should be low-cut; traditional models may be of either the 'V' or rarer 'U' shape and may be backless or fully backed, double or single breasted, and should have shawl lapels. Single breasted styles should have no more than three buttons, and double no more than three rows. Before the War, while black tie was still gaining acceptance, men would wear a white waistcoat, along with other details such as stiff fronted shirts; this was to create a more formal effect when for example ladies were present.
The cummerbund, derived from military dress uniform in British India, is worn with its pleats facing up, and is normally of the same cloth as the bow tie and lapels. Maroon, the colour commonly worn to accompany black tie, may be used for the cummerbund in very informal or summer situations (though note that this is not to match the bow tie, which was always black). A cummerbund is never worn with a double breasted jacket, and a waistcoat now very rarely. Since this style of jacket is never unbuttoned, the waist of the trousers is never exposed, and therefore does not need to be covered, though before the war an edge of waistcoat was often shown between the jacket and shirt.
Recently, and particularly in America, it has become more common for men to remove their jackets. Because of this, full-back waistcoats have become more common; unlike the traditional waistcoat, these are often high, single breasted, and with the full five or six buttons of a daytime waistcoat.
Shirt
The shirt is conventionally white or off-white (cotton or linen). Its front is either marcella, pleated, plain, or more rarely a stiff front (as with white tie).
Before World War II, stiff shirts with winged detachable collars were common, just as worn with white tie. However, such shirts are no longer common, and an imitation of this type, a semi-stiff shirt with an attached wing collar,
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