Proceed with Caution

Contemporary Jackets

Contemporary Trousers

Contemporary Waist Coverings

Contemporary Shirts

Contemporary Neckwear

Contemporary Footwear

Contemporary Accessories

Contemporary Personalization

Contemporary Jackets

• Model

The Basic Rules: jackets can be single- or double-breasted

The Classic Details: the single-breasted takes one button and the double-breasted takes four

Single-Breasted

The single-breasted models remains the most popular and its classic one-button interpretation is still the most formal.   However, novice formal wear (especially rentals) also offers numerous two- and three-button styles which mirror the current trends in regular men's suits.   

When constructed with traditional detailing and paired with conventional accessories the two-button model is the most successful at mimicking the classic dinner jacket.  Conversely, dressing it down with notched lapels, flap pockets, long tie and no waist covering will draw attention to the style's common roots. 

Three-button models are not as easy to gentrify.  The version intended to close with only the middle button can often appear very similar to a two-button model from a distance but up close it suffers from a couple of formal handicaps.  For one, the shorter lapels are not substantial enough  for the sweeping shawl or the stately peak shapes making it appropriate only for the relatively modern notch style.  Secondly, the additional buttons and buttonholes create visual clutter at odds with the jacket's intended refinement. 

The other type of three-button is designed to fasten with both the middle and top buttons.  Even if the top button is left undone the jacket's cut will still cover up most of the shirt thereby robbing the outfit of much of its dramatic black and white contrast.

Double Breasted

As for contemporary double-breasted jackets, the six-button variation has been the standard since the 1980s.  The buttons can be arranged in a traditional keystone pattern (the top pair further apart than the other pairs) usually fastening with the middle and/or bottom buttons, or in a trapezoid pattern (converging vertical rows) first popularized in the eighties and always buttoning at the bottom.   Most often found with a peaked lapel the double-breasted model remains an essentially classic look, albeit slightly busier than its classic four-button predecessor.

The two-button double-breasted has made sporadic appearances ever since the jazz age.  It provides much the same look as six- or four-button models that close with the bottom button but without the extra clutter of those more traditional choices.

• Lapel

The Basic Rules: shawl and peaked lapels are the most traditional but many argue that the notched style has earned its place too

Style

Traditionalists disdain the notched-lapel trend which gained popularity in the 1960s and persisted because manufacturers were able to apply their common business suit patterns to tuxedos and thus save money.   “A dinner jacket with notch lapels is a sartorial oxymoron,” opines famed haberdasher Alan Flusser, “like sporting a dinner shirt with a button-down collar. Not only does this sportier coat lapel design lack the aesthetic logic and refinement required of formal wear, its casualness makes the rest of the ensemble look common and less dignified.”   Such opponents regard this innovation as suitable only for waiters.

Pragmatists, on the other hand, point out the inescapable fact that this lapel is by far the most popular choice on (single-breasted) tuxedos today and even conservative designers and retailers such as the venerated Brooks Brothers have been offering it for a number of years now.  As long as all the other classic principles are adhered to - especially the one-button rule - it has a relatively minor impact on the traditional appearance of the dinner jacket.  Consequently, the best approach is likely that of etiquette maven Amy Vanderbilt who in 1952 accepted the notched lapel as a legitimate option in the modern world but categorized it as a less formal alternative along the lines of the shawl collar.

Facings

When silk facings first began appearing on tailcoats in the 19^th century, they would often extend only as far as the buttonhole so that they were framed by a band of the coat’s material.  This style remained a legitimate option up until the 1930s.  Fancy lapels returned to formal wear in the 1960s but this time on dinner jackets instead of tailcoats and with a reversed pattern: only the edges were trimmed in silk while the rest of the lapels were self-faced.  This flourish was an very popular fashion until the return of social and sartorial conservatism in the mid ‘70s.

Today both the self-trim and silk-trim lapels can once again be found on fashion-forward tuxedos for young consumers.   The velvet lapel variation of the ‘50s and ‘60s also continues to pop up from time to time and it is inevitable that the faced sleeve cuffs of that era will return as well.  Provided that all of these alternatives are executed in a black-on-black motif they will remain sound options for a man seeking to add personal style yet remain true to black tie’s fundamental principles.

• Color and Pattern

The Basic Rules: black or midnight blue; white is acceptable in summer or in the tropics

The Classic Details: solid tones only

To paraphrase Henry Ford, contemporary dinner suits are acceptable in any color you want as long as it’s black.  While rental shops offer all-white tuxedos as well as jackets of various other hues, they are the exclusive domain of weddings and proms and are very rarely seen at grown-up functions.  The same goes for the black-on-black patterns.

• Fabric

The Classic Details: worsted wool

High-end designers have been offering wool & cashmere blends since the 1980s and mohair blends since the ‘50s, both of which are soigné enough to honor black tie's basic principles.  Even classicist  Alan Flusser advocates the dulled sheen of baby mohair and fine worsted wool as “one of the few tasteful exceptions to the rule that normally consigns shiny clothes to the parvenu side of the tracks."

• Pocket

The Classic Details: besom style

Flap pockets are appearing on dinner jackets offered by even the most traditional designers today.  Just as with the notched lapel, this style of pocket denigrates the formal suit to the level of a common business suit and is usually just another way for manufacturers to save money.  Fortunately, the edges of these pockets are usually besomed which means that the flap can be tucked in or removed altogether in order to create the more formal look deserving of a dinner jacket. 

Alternatives

• Velvet Jacket

Combining the rich fabric of the smoking jacket and the familiar styling of its semi-formal offspring, the velvet dinner jacket is both alternative and traditional at the same time.  Available in various dark colors since the 1960s it has always been most popular – and arguably most striking – in formal ebony.  

• Long Coat

The modern three-quarter length formal coat – known as a Prince Edward coat in the UK – is a variation of the turn-of-the-century formal day garment known as a frock coat.  Despite its incompatible pedigree, many celebrities adopted it as evening wear during the “creative black tie” trend of the 1980s and '90s and the fad soon caught on with teenage imitators. Invariably constructed with notched lapels and paired with a long tie it is entirely inappropriate for traditional black tie functions.

• Nehru / Mandarin Collar Jacket

Another product of the creative formalwear fad of the 1990s was the revival of the 1960s Nehru jacket, now re-christened as the “mandarin collar coat”.  Like the three-quarter length coat, this alternative model’s popularity has declined significantly in recent years but is still available from some manufacturers.

Although the style incorporates the fundamental principles of black color and understated dressiness, it is still a significant break with tradition as the enclosed front precludes any type of trimmed lapel, formal neck tie or smart contrast of an exposed white shirt.   Barring a legitimate claim to the Nehru as article of one's national dress, it would be best to leave this style of jacket to less formal affairs.

• Spencer / Eton Jacket

Origins

In the 1790s the second Earl Spencer removed the tails from his tailcoat and the eponymous fashion was taken up by both men and women among the English elite, proving especially popular among the fairer sex. 

In the following century the style was adopted, renamed and exported by two very different institutions.  One of them was England's prestigious Eton College which mandated the waist-length jacket as part of a newly instituted uniform for junior students.  The style was so admired by mothers and headmasters on both sides of the Atlantic that so-called Eton jacket became standard dress clothes for young boys everywhere.  

Mess Jacket

The Spencer was also the jacket of choice for the British military in 1845 when it introduced evening dress for use in formal occasions held in mess halls and elsewhere.  Re-christened as a mess jacket, it was later instituted by armed forces in other Commonwealth countries and eventually in the United States around the term of the century and is still in use.  It is usually constructed of blue, black or white material depending on formality, rank and/or local climate (see sidebar).   

In the early 1930s the white version of the mess jacket was adapted for civilian semi-formal wear (see the History section) although the fad was short-lived thanks to its rapid adoption by waiters and jazz bands. 

Contemporary Spencer Jacket

In the 1980s the Spencer jacket reappeared in layman formal wear and this time it was made of black material with satin facings, had a slightly lower cut and tended to be worn buttoned.  While the trousers could be matching or separate, the choice of cummerbund and bow tie accoutrements and shawl or peaked lapels maintained the tradition of the previous civilian mess jacket.

The contemporary Spencer jacket remains a tuxedo alternative today although it suffers from the same stigma as its military predecessor:  Known in the hospitality industry as an eton jacket, it is the standard uniform of bellboys and cruise directors and thus holds little appeal for discriminating dressers.  A notable exception is the Scottish variant called the Prince Charlie jacket which is a dashing and integral component of Highland black tie (see sidebar).