Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette! In today's video, we'll discuss the
proper situations in which a man should wear Black Tie, also known as a tuxedo, or
White Tie, also known as a tailcoat ensemble. If you're a longtime fan of our
content, you'll know that we've covered the most formal of men's dress codes in
great depth; we've got PDF guides for white tie, black
tie, and morning dress all available in our shop here and just recently we
completed two more videos on all of the differences between a tuxedo and a
standard business suit you can find the two videos in that series here. Today's
video dovetails with the second part in that series as we're going to be
covering all of these social situations and events where wearing a tuxedo or
indeed a full tailcoat ensemble is appropriate and correct. Before we begin
with these specific scenarios though, here's a bit of history on formal dress
codes. Black Tie and White Tie are the two categories of men's formal
eveningwear traditionally designed to be worn in the
evening, which is to say, after six o'clock or after sundown whichever comes
first. The original purpose of these outfits
was to be special dress codes that left behind the dirt and grime of the day's
work that would accompany clothes worn during the day. In other words, they were
really set aside to be unique. After the invention of the automobile and other
modern conveniences, of course, the strict segregation between day clothes and
evening clothes fell away somewhat in terms of practicality but the
distinctions remained purely in terms of aesthetics. In the Victorian era, white
tie was expected to be worn at every evening function where women would be
present and black tie was only appropriate for less formal stag affairs.
Between the world wars, the tuxedo largely supplanted the tail coat as
standard evening wear and the tail coat then became relegated to extremely
formal evening functions. And after World War II,
the business suit became acceptable for semi-formal and even some formal
gatherings both night and day. This meant that all formal wear became increasingly
limited to only the most formal of events. Even today, it's still commonly
accepted that the tuxedo and the tailcoat shouldn't be seen in broad
daylight. Because this can be hard to avoid in some parts of the globe during
the summer months, however, evening is alternatively defined as either sundown
or 6:00 p.m., whichever comes first. Whatever the case, unless you happen to
be a man who is working in the service or entertainment industries, the only
acceptable scenario for being seen in a tuxedo or tailcoat in broad daylight is
if you're traveling to an event where these dress codes will be worn and you
don't also have a change of clothes. Also, there are a handful of state functions
in Europe where tuxedos are worn in the daytime although these are rare. In the
United Kingdom, Western Europe, and Japan, the persistence of formal daywear as a
viable dress code has meant that tuxedos and tailcoats are still not really seen
until the evening, in most circumstances. In the US though, morning dress has all
but disappeared and most Americans now commonly think of the tuxedo as being
all-purpose formal wear. You don't have to look any further than daytime
weddings for this to be evident. Today, most formal affairs where the hosts have
chosen to institute Black Tie as the formal dress code will explicitly state
as much on their invitations. A few occasions where evening wear is expected
or even welcomed still do exist outside of this invitation paradigm, however, and
they're the ones we're going to cover in today's video.
Let's get started today then with public events and entertainment. Historically,
opera has been considered the most prestigious of all of the Performing
Arts and as such, men would dress accordingly when in
attendance. While the days of mandatory tailcoats for attending the Opera are
long gone, it's not out of the question especially in major metropolitan cities
to see some particularly well-dressed men attending the Opera in Black Tie or
even sometimes White. Premiere performances of the ballet, symphony, and
theatre are also often Black Tie optional. and for a guide on attending
the Opera you can check out our related article here. Next up, we will cover private
events with family, friends, or coworkers. White Tie should only be worn if it's
explicitly stated on the invitation. Still, there are a few functions where
full dress is required, most of these being located in Europe. An
example here is the famous Viennese Opera Ball which is, in some
circumstances, actually open to the public. In America, however, the White Tie
opportunities are fewer and far between generally limited to things like
debutante balls. Private Black Tie events do remain relatively popular, however,
these are often large dinner dances or other events given by corporations or
fraternal organizations. And as the middle-class equivalent to the debutante
ball, the prom will often feature a much more loose definition of what we would
call formal dress. So while most might choose ensembles with loud colors and
cheap fabrics, the young man who wears a properly styled tuxedo to his prom is
going to stand head and shoulders above the others. The Quinceañera or
celebration commemorating a Latin American girl's rise to 15 years of age,
essentially similar in format to a more American sweet 16 party, is often
Black Tie Optional in nature, as well. Here's a side note, formal evening wear is
typically intended for adult occasions so tail coats and tuxedos are
discouraged to be worn by preteen boys. An exception here is weddings, though in
these specific circumstances, really only the junior ushers should be wearing
tuxedos that are the same as the other members
of the wedding party. Here's a simple way to think of this rule, if a boy is too
young to be able to properly tie a bowtie himself, then he's too young to
wear one. On the topic of weddings, however, marriage ceremonies are still
generally held to more formal standards than other events and a formal evening
wedding is the grandest of all of these. If you're invited to a wedding ceremony
that begins after 6:00 p.m., usually with a reception to follow, a Black Tie dress
code is going to be common, if not white. Such affairs are relatively rare though
especially in the United Kingdom where weddings typically aren't held in the
evening, as a general rule. The most formal type of wedding ceremony that the
average man is likely to attend is only going to require tuxedos of the
groomsmen and usually just formally styled suits for every other man. for
more information on what to wear as a groom or what to wear as a wedding guest
you can check out these related videos here. Now let's get into some more rare
and unique situations starting with evenings at sea. Ocean cruises do often
still provide a man an opportunity to wear a tuxedo.
In fact, some cruise lines pride themselves on their attention to the
details of formality even encouraging guests to dress up on the ship after 6
p.m. Some cruise lines will offer onboard formal wear rentals as well for
those passengers who didn't bring a formal ensemble. The number of formal
nights on a cruise line can vary widely depending on the line and the itinerary,
however, and for example, the first and last nights of a cruise generally, are
never formal because on those nights, most of the luggage of the passengers is
going to be packed away. Days in port are also similarly informal because they
often wouldn't provide passengers enough time to change before dinner. If a man
belongs to a fraternal organization, he may have a few more opportunities than
usual to wear formal wear as well. Prestigious
universities such as Cambridge and Oxford and organizations like the Masons
will often have their members don full dress for particularly special occasions.
These groups may have their own specific versions of formal wear codes, however,
which means that what the men are wearing is really more of a uniform than
true formal wear. Now, the average man probably won't find himself being
invited to too many diplomatic functions but just in case, here's a brief overview.
While White Tie gatherings remain a tradition in the royal courts of Europe,
American presidents have only held two White Tie dinners since 1989. President
George W Bush also did a way with the custom of wearing White Tie to the
reception for the diplomatic corps in 2001. More often than not then, White
House functions today are typically Black Tie affairs. On a related note
though, US presidents do still frequently speak at two of the last remaining White
Tie dinners in the country. Thw Grid Iron Club dinner hosted by the oldest
journalistic organization in Washington and the Alfred East Smith Memorial
Foundation dinner which is a Catholic Charities fundraiser held in New York. So,
barring these specific cases then, what's the most sure way to know when you
should wear Black Tie or White Tie? In simplest terms, just consult your
invitation. Prior to World War II, it was considered a faux pas to explicitly
state a dress code on an invitation because of the universal understandings
of what clothing to wear when that we mentioned at the beginning of the video.
Today, however, especially in the United States, so few parties are truly formal
in nature that mindful hosts will be sure to include a dress code on the
invitation. Even so, in recent decades, hosts have begun to needlessly
complicate things a little bit with more ambiguous variations of the traditional
dress codes. for a video on one of the more well-known of these ambiguous dress
codes black tie optional you can go here. And
if a dress code isn't printed on an invitation and you're still unsure, just
talk to your hosts directly and ask them what they'd prefer, you'll be glad you
did! So now that you know the occasions where wearing Black Tie and White Tie is
appropriate and even preferred, you should be able to seek them out if you'd
like and look your best while you're there. If you need a refresher on the
specific stylistic details for each of these dress codes
here's another reminder to take a look at our white tie and black tie PDF
guides available in the Fort Belvedere shop also check out the newly renovated
black tie guide on the gentleman's Gazette website it's a treasure trove of
information for anybody who wants to learn more about formal dress codes
their history and all kinds of related information as you can see I'm wearing a
tuxedo in today's video it's a vintage model from the brand after six and I
believe it dates to the mid 1950s it's midnight blue in color double-breasted
in configuration and features no vents and it also has grosgrain peaked lapels
the trousers are pleated and they also feature an ornate braid down the side of
each leg the suspenders are also black grosgrain silk and they feature gold
adjusters I'm not wearing a waist covering today of course because the
jacket is double breasted so I don't need one my shirt has narrow front
pleats takes four shirt studs and also has French cuffs to take cufflinks the
links and studs are all gold and they feature onyx as the stone my red
carnation boutonniere single-ended grosgrain bow tie and black silk socks
are all from Fort Belvedere and you can find all of them in the shop here
meanwhile my pocket square is in plain white linen and I've just got it folded
in a square fold today so as not to be too busy with the carnation boutonniere
and finally my opera pumps are vintage models from allen edmonds and they
feature wide flat bows