Wear A Double Breasted

I was having an email conversation with a friend about cummerbunds the other day, those waist coverings for warm weather black tie that have a precarious foothold in the winter wardrobe as well. Cummerbunds are descended from the silk sashes worn instead of waistcoats by the British in the heat of India and were introduced into the United States to accompany the white mess jacket in the 1930s. The mess jacket quickly disappeared - it was attractive only on men with washboards for abdomens - but the cummerbund hung around when the mess jacket became a white or cream single breasted for summer evenings.

The spread of cummerbund popularity peaked in the second half of the twentieth century, after dinner jacket manufacturers realized that the things were much less expensive than tailored waistcoats. Yes, there has always been the drive to save a nickle here and there in ready to wear, and the cummerbund preceded the dinner jacket with pocket flaps and notch lapels. Though not by much. But the ready to wear waistcoat was effectively replaced by the cummerbund year round and I recall wearing them to holiday dances as a teenager.

The precariousness of the cummerbund's place for cool weather evenings has to do of course with the disappearance of waist coverings in general. The growing popularity of black suits with visible belt buckles and that terrible triangle of white shirt below the two button jacket's closing has more to do with what the designers send to their high profile clients to wear on camera than it does to elegance or good taste, but so be it.

There is of course a perfectly good alternative for those minimalist men who insist on dispensing with waistcoat and cummerbund and that is the double breasted dinner jacket, worn very nicely by Mr. Forest Whittaker in the photo. It deserves more of a place than it has.