No One Wore Evening Clothes Better

Men's clothes change slowly but they do change. Every century or so, the most formal clothes in the male hierarchy disappear, to be replaced by what had been the second most formal. And what we're seeing today are the late stages of the replacement of white tie with black tie, and black tie with the suit.


And so I thought it appropriate to recognize the epitome of formal and semi-formal evening clothes. No-one wore them better than the late Duke of Windsor.

There is little variation permitted in formal dress but even so the Duke's waistcoat was a bit better than everyone else's. And of course he popularized many of what were the innovations in black tie itself, from midnight blue as black to the double breasted dinner jacket.

I understand that we don't change for dinner any longer but the general disappearance of evening clothes leaves the world a poorer place.

Formal Dressing in San Francisco

The recent Diamond Jubille of the San Francisco ballet was as formal as affairs usually get in the United States. The black-tie event and fundraiser included a $1,000 per seat (and up) dinner in City Hall, a performance by America’s oldest professional ballet company, and a party after the performance. There were more than a thousand people seated for dinner and three thousand at the ballet itself.


The attendees included hundreds of formally dressed women but only a few men turned out in white tie. They got my vote for best dressed.


A large contingent wore classic black tie. A few men, like the gentleman in the photo, dressed it up in appropriate fashion.

And of course, too many attendees wore ordinary suits, some without so much as a necktie. But they were better dressed than a few others, whose quest to be different didn't earn them any style points.

I will not grace this site with their photos but among the worst dressed was one man whose dinner jacket sleeves fell to his knuckles. Most people noticed only his orange four in hand necktie.

Worst of all was the dinner jacket accompanied by a gray and black four in hand and matching vest. They were worn above black vinyl trousers. The horror.

Photographs are courtesy of Drew Altizer Photography. © Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.

Formal Shoes

This year, we celebrated New Year's Eve at our golf club's dinner-dance. Most of the men in attendance made the effort to wear black tie but I was a little surprised to see few formal shoes. More accurately, I saw only two pair, and I was wearing one of them. That represented a missed opportunity for about fifty men.

Now the advantage of patent leather shoes on a dance floor is that one's feet reflect the light as they move about, and I'm in favor of anything that makes me look lighter afoot. Silk laces and maroon silk hose are complementary.

Of course, patent leather oxfords are not the only style of evening shoe. The club dance is a low key affair, and I had been wearing green velvet slippers and a green velvet smoking jacket the past couple of years. Black calf dancing pumps with black silk bows would have been equally appropriate.

But, as I wrote, instead of formal shoes I saw a sea of black calf lace-ups on New Year's Eve. There's nothing wrong with black oxfords, especially considering the alternatives (I dread the day when black Crocs appear on the dance floor), but they are a bit dull in more ways than one. A man can easily improve his black tie look by investing a modest sum in a pair of patent leather evening shoes.

Who Comes Up With This Stuff?

I had to smile at GQ's "Everything You Need to Know About Black Tie" in the December issue, which I picked up because the cover promised early photos of Sienna Miller and Jessica Biel (hence the above illustration of a 1927 painting by Christian Schad which I think ties the two topics together, don't you?).

Anyway, back to GQ's story, which was apparently edited by the stylist that dresses Tom Cruise. I first raised an eyebrow at the statement that a cummerbund makes the wearer look like he's headed to the prom. That was followed by an admonition to lose the patent shoes and wear black bluchers instead (they don't actually specify bluchers but the illustration shows a pair). And we're told it's OK to substitute a black suit for a DJ altogether. Finally, they advise blucher-wearing guys everywhere that they should don a chesterfield overcoat with a black velvet collar. As if they're likely to have one of those hanging next to their black suits.

I doubt it was coincidental that less than a week after reading the piece two different readers emailed me asking where they could buy a chesterfield. Now I think every suit-wearing man should own a chesterfield but I fervently hope neither of them was planning to buy one to wear with a black suit and bluchers.

Reader Questions

From Richard
"I have been invited to a wedding which states "black tie." I don't have a dinner jacket but I have two options:

1. A vintage Kilgour burgundy smoking jacket which I would wear as a substitute for a dinner jacket

2. A single breasted peak lapel lounge suit (also Kilgour) which I would wear with a white shirt and houndstooth black and white tie (typically de rigueur at English weddings)

Any thoughts on preferred options? I am tending towards option 2 only because I think a smoking jacket might be too much."

If the wedding is in the evening, as it should be with the stated dress, I think your instincts are correct. A smoking jacket is to be worn at home, at your club, and, if you're young enough, maybe at a dance club with a pair of jeans. I'd call and get the host's opinion about how firmly they would like to hold you to black tie (your third option is to rent some) and if they are OK with it, wear the suit.

From Jim

"I live in Louisville Ky. And while our winters are mild, there are a few cold days. I need to replace some of my trousers. My question is can I wear a tropical wool weight trousers or should I purchase them in gabardine? I work in your typical business casual environment so my daily wear is a pair of trousers and a dress shirt. I believe the material is the same weight just different finish."

You don't have to choose. Gabardine is woven in weights as heavy as twelve ounces and as light as eight, which is the same as other tropical wools. I recommend you look for something in the middle. Ten ounce cloth, which is mid-weight, will be wearable in Louisville on all but the warmest days, and will serve you better when it's cool. It will feel heavier to your hand than tropical but not as heavy as a winter weight suit.

What to Wear

Location, occasion and time of day combine to determine the best color palette and style for a man's dress. We don't dress the way English aristocrats did in the 19th century, but many of the guidelines developed then are still effective in social and professional settings today.

Location boils down to country vs. city. The best country colors reflect the browns, greens and accent colors of the daytime countryside. The closer we get to the center of a large urban center, the more our palette should shift into dark grays and blues. And in suburban areas between the country and the city, the most effective colors are in the middle of this spectrum - mid grays, mid blues and tans.

Time of day, or rather daylight and night (the usual dividing line is 6 PM), also plays an important role. Black and white are problem colors during the day but very effective in the dark, which is why semi-formal and formal evening clothes follow that lack of color scheme.

Finally, location and time of day are modified by the formality of the occasion. A dinner jacket might be the best choice for a charity ball but a polo shirt and trousers are probably better for informal entertaining at home in the California summertime. Even then, black gabardine trousers, black moccasins and a white polo will be an effective look that's based on tested principles of dress.

Similarly, during the day a man can adapt his clothes to his surroundings more effectively by thinking about the occasion. Navy blue pinstripes are perfect for a call on an urban law firm, but won't play as well as a camel hair odd jacket and gray flannels at an office outside the city.

Instead of wondering what to wear, think about the location, the occasion and the time of day.

Dressing for Dinner

I get the feeling that one of the reasons we don't see as much black tie any longer in the United States is that many men will only wear it when they are certain others will be doing the same. The odd charity ball. The opening of the opera or the ballet. Perhaps New Year's Eve at the club. Few men wear it to dinner any longer, though that was its original purpose.

The custom of changing clothes for dinner began in the eighteenth century, when the sort of men that could afford special clothes for evening spent a great deal of the day on horseback. They needed to change to get rid of the smell, a rationale that has fortunately disappeared.

People stopped changing for dinner when they began spending their days at offices away from home. Theatres began accommodating mid-week customers in lounge suits instead of tails out of necessity. It simply wasn't practical to go home after work, change into evening clothes, grab a bite and still get to a theatre in time for the curtain during the week. Things have gone downhill from there.

Most of this problem is overcome by the simple expedient of carrying evening clothes to the office in a garment bag. My wife actually has it simpler than I because she tends to wear black clothes every day. To dress for dinner she only needs to change her shoes and her jewelry. But changing male clothes is hardly more onerous, requiring about fifteen minutes.

I like two types of dinner jackets: the more formal black single breasted peak lapel coat and vest in 10 oz. mohair and wool and the somewhat less formal double breasted jacket in midnight blue 13 oz. wool with black satin trimmings. Both are complemented by either black patent oxfords with silk laces or black calf pumps with a silk bow. I wear pique front shirts with the peak lapels and pleated fronts with the DB. My ties are straight ended in a variety of widths. The ones with butterly ends are difficult to tie and in my opinion they don't look as good as the straight ones either.

When overcome with the urge to add color to evening clothes, I allow that there are four accepted ways to do so. A red carnation is fine, as is a colored pocket square, and hose in a complementary color or with clocks or some other decoration in a color. A colored waistcoat probably defines the outer boundary of propriety. In my opinion, and I am joined in this by a large crowd of others, no-one should ever wear a colored bow, especially a white one.

Once dressed, we might still be faced with the trauma of venturing out without the company of peers (unless one happens to be in London's Mayfair or St. James's, where men in evening clothes remain a familiar sight). Ease the way by making a black tie date with a friend. My experience is that everyone has a grand time. Few others pay attention, and the ones that do are overwhelmingly in favor.

Consider the Black Suit

Consider the black suit. By this, I do not mean the Men's Warehouse "Since you'll only have one suit it should be black so you can wear it to a funeral" suit. Nor do I recommend the City of London black worsted with white pinstripes. But a black suit (similar in style to but hopefully better made than the three button version from Brooks Brothers to the left) has a place in your wardrobe if you're young, urban and plan to spend some of your nights clubbing in less formal places like LA or South Beach.

Know that a black suit worn during the day has been controversial and ideally to be avoided since the lounge/business suit replaced earlier forms of day wear. Charcoal and navy blue are preferred. The place for black is at night.

Night is when people go to urban clubs to see and be seen. And while a man in traditional dinner kit would look out of place, Hollywood has given us an alternative in the black or midnight blue suit, stripped of most of its frills and worn in place of black tie for evening.

Stripped means that the jacket and trousers should not have the silk trimmings of a dinner jacket and trousers. The jacket should preferably be one button with a peak lapel, but could be two or three button and notch lapel. Preferably without flaps on the side pockets and either no side vents or two of them. A sheen of mohair in the cloth adds to the evening look, as do cloth covered buttons.

Wear it with highly polished plain black oxfords and a silver silk tee shirt or polo in summer or a cashmere mock turtleneck in winter. A pocket square shows savoir faire. If you can't stand the thought of going out without a necktie, wear a plain white dress shirt with french cuffs and a Macclesfield or satin four-in-hand necktie. Avoid Clooney style, with an open neck. It just looks sloppy having your collar flapping around and all.

I'd rather you wore something else during the day, but if you can't get home to change for the evening, a black suit can work for you from morning to night. Bring some cologne and a night-time top or shirt and necktie in your briefcase so you can transform yourself quickly at the office. It's not cool to wear exactly the same clothes that you wore all day.

Once the sun sets the black suit is in its element.