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.