Introduction: A Proper Education

Menswear designers offer their alternative buttoned-up and casual versions each season, while the Hollywood crowd turns out it renditions for each year’s televised awards ceremonies. Most of the innovations they concoct are motivated by the desire for individuality and comfort, and the resulting confections usually turn out to be less than classic. The fact is that many men go to considerable effort to look special in a tuxedo when to do so is simply a matter of having the right information.

Bad Advice

Not surprisingly, many young men today crave something more substantial than the fast food, casual clothes and poor manners fostered by the counterculture revolution.  Unfortunately most of us in this category have little experience with formal tradition and few opportunities for a proper education.  We have just enough awareness to realize that the few formal rituals we encounter - namely graduations, weddings and funerals – require us to dress in a special way.  For the specific details of such attire we are entirely dependent on those whom we expect to be educated in such matters. 

Having ruled out designers and celebrities, the most obvious source of dependable formalwear advice would logically be the very people who sell or rent it to us.  But herein lays the irony of the formalwear industry: most salespeople wouldn’t know black tie if it walked into the store and had a grand mal seizure.  Considering that approximately ninety percent of rentals are for weddings and proms which are by nature youth-oriented parties, these retailers are well aware that they will profit far more by stocking their shelves with the latest fads and cheerfully advising their customers that “anything goes” than they would by limiting themselves to strictly defined tradition.  This approach may be fine for teenage formals and young adult marriage ceremonies but it certainly won't hold water at proper black-tie events when guests are expected to be mature enough to know better.

• Let There Be Light

A mature understanding of black tie must come instead from an appreciation of the rich tapestry of tradition that lies hidden beneath its visible components.  Consequently this section of the guide not only lists the garments which correctly comply with the dress code but also looks at the code’s etiquette and context. 

Thanks to modern society's ignorance of traditional etiquette, the amount of detail involved in the precise definition of black tie can seem a little overwhelming at first.  It may also appear somewhat arbitrary to people under forty who are used to dining in trendy eateries and working in "business casual" offices which lack any semblance of a formal dress code. 

However, once a man begins to understand the premise of an outfit being correct rather than simply acceptable, he realizes the significant benefits of this system.  Knowing that a formal evening is an inherent test of his sartorial education, a wise man will guarantee success by following the very straightforward rules of proper black tie rather than blindly trying to guess at what might qualify as an acceptable alternative.