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Gentlemen, Antonio here.
Okay.
Had a great question come in, a gentleman from Saudi Arabia and he's asking, "Antonio,
what is the difference between a suit and tuxedo?"
Some of you guys maybe thinking, "That's a pretty easy question," but is it?
And I'll go ahead and get right into this video.
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All right, guys.
So the question is what is the difference between a suit and a tuxedo?
Let's actually define what each of them are.
Suit, the definition of a suit is actually a jacket and trousers made from the same fabric.
So technically, there are leisure suits.
There are suits made from velvet.
There are suits from denim.
Yes, there are denim suits.
So not something you want to wear in a business environment I guess unless you're up in Canada.
But the point is that a suit is simply defined as having a matching top, matching bottom
made from the same fabric.
Tuxedo then technically is a suit because that's what a tuxedo does, but a tuxedo is
more specific.
It actually comes out of, I think 1888 in Tuxedo Park, New York.
That's where it was first spotted.
And it was worn by the elite out of Manhattan.
And it was basically a play on -- it was similar to evening dress.
Go over to article over at Real Men Real Style.
I go into more detail there.
So there are three main differences though between suits and tuxedos.
And the suits I'm going to be talking about worsted wool suits made from a dark fabric
of navy blue, charcoal gray.
Those are the kind of suits I'm going to be referring to, not leisure suits.
So it's formality.
Number one, tuxedo is going to be more formal than any pretty much regular suit out there.
Does that make sense?
So black tie, tuxedo, evening dress, all of this right here is going to be usually worn
and supposed to be worn in the evening only.
Suits can be worn any time of the day.
They can be made from a lighter color fabric.
Like I said, they can be made from a casual fabric.
Therefore, suits are going to less formal.
They can even be casual, while black tie or tuxedos are always going to be more formal.
So that's the number one thing.
Number two is flexibility.
Black tie tuxedos, they have a prescription of certain rules that you have to follow when
you're wearing it.
Tuxedos, you wear a black bowtie.
Now, you can change one thing in a black tie or a tuxedo outfit and be fine.
But usually you're going to have the black bowtie.
You're going to have the black or -- what is it -- midnight blue material that it's
made from.
You're going to have the grosgrain or it's going to be actually maybe satin lapel and
you're also going to have a stripe down on the side, usually the black.
Occasionally, you will see midnight blue.
Both of them are correct.
You're also going to see you have a waist covering.
I have an entire infographic in video on black-tie, I'll link you to right over here.
So go check out that article and that detailed information if you're curious about black-tie
or tuxedos.
But when it comes down to it, there's not much flexibility there.
When it comes to suits, you have a lot more flexibility.
You can dress them up, you can dress them down.
You don't have to have a waist covering.
You actually don't even have to wear a tie with them.
You could wear them in a wide variety of colors.
The pocket square instead of going with a white straight presidential fold.
You can actually have all types of pocket squares in there.
Also, with suits you can into fashion suits.
You can into classically designed suits.
While again getting over to tuxedos you're going to find that you're going to stick with
the classic here.
And it is something that again, you don't have a lot of flexibility.
Now, let's go into the final point which is going to be cost.
Usually, tuxedos are going to cost more than a suit and this is why.
It's not so much that they have to cost more.
It's if you're going to spend money and you're going to be wearing a tuxedo or a black tie
pretty regularly, you want to invest in a quality piece.
Because at that level, the people that you're hanging out with at that level can tell the
difference between low-cost and high quality fabrics.
And so you're going to want to invest in a higher quality fabric.
When it comes to a suit, if you nail the fit, if you get pretty much the function of it
right, you can actually compromise a little bit on fabric.
And not as many people are going to pick up on it.
A well-fitted suit that's made from a medium quality fabric is actually going to look a
lot better than a suit that doesn't fit you very well and is made from a higher quality
fabric.
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So with suits, I usually tell guys to focus in on the fit.
But if you're actually going to be purchasing black tie, of course it should fit.
And here you're going to want to make sure that you can afford to actually buy something
that's of higher quality.
If you're actually having to rent -- I know some of you guys are thinking, "Oh, I just
want a tuxedo for prom."
In that case, sure, rent.
At that level, it's not really an issue.
And I think the gentleman from Saudi Arabia, his question more is probably he's looking
to do business maybe in London or he's looking to go over to New York.
And he wants to make sure when he goes to a black tie event that he's dressed appropriately.
All right, guys, like I said, I go into a lot more over at the article at Real Men Real
Style.
I'm going to link you to some very useful articles which will go into more detail about
suits and the different types of suits.
Will go into more detail about black tie tuxedos.
And if you've got questions, make sure to send to me over at Real Men Real Style or
leave them below in the comments here on YouTube.
Take care, guys.
See you in the next video.
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