History's Relevance

19th Century Origins

Edwardian Era (1900s, '10s)

Jazz Age (1920s)

Classic Age (1930s)

War & Post War ('40s, '50s)

Jet Age ('50s, '60s)

Peacock Revolution ('60s,'70s)

Classic Revival I (Late '70s)

Classic Revival II (1980s)

Dress-Down Days (1990s)

Postwar Era: Semi-Formal Transition

During the war, for various reasons, dinner jackets were rarely worn in public places and this custom has taken root in America, particularly among the younger generation. 

    Vogue’s Book of Etiquette (1948)

• War's Impact: New Evening Standards

America’s declaration of war in December 1941 signaled the end of the dinner suit’s heyday.  With the nation focused on winning the conflict abroad evening wear was stored away in mothballs and the resulting impact on formal tradition was highlighted in a November of 1942 Esquire fashion article entitled “Putting Emily on Ice”.  Describing an illustration of a couple dining in a fine restaurant the magazine noted “Wearing street clothes instead of the once de rigueur formal attire, this man and his partner assume an Emily Post-mortem attitude about the whole thing, as do many other in this new era of simple taste.”   Furthermore, men who did choose to stick to tradition during these lean times found their options limited by War Production Board regulations that prohibited the manufacture of garments such as double-breasted jackets and dress shirts with bosoms.   

When war-time rationing came to an end in 1945 the corresponding preference for a business suit over a tuxedo did not.  In 1948 Vogue’s Book of Etiquette described the new standard:  

“During the war, for various reasons, dinner jackets were rarely worn in public places.  In restaurants, at the theater, even at first nights, they became the exception rather than the rule.  And this custom has taken root in America, particularly among the younger generation.  Although dinner jackets are never incorrect for the theater or dinner in a restaurant, they are usually worn in public only on special occasions. 

Menswear historian Nicholas Antongiavanni notes that the post-war demise of wearing white tie for formal occasions and black tie for less formal affairs extended even to society’s higher circles.  America was flushed with pride at the victory of their youthful, democratic nation over established, aristocratic empires and consequently the establishment was inclined to use discretion when it came to the “patrician cast” of formal attire.    

Ironically, the rapidly expanding middle class was only too happy to adopt the upper class’s formal attire even as they rejected its corresponding conventions.  This led to an interesting conundrum.  On the one hand, social conservatives were not yet ready to demote white tie’s “formal” status in favor of more casual contemporary standards.  Conversely, it was illogical to continue referring to black tie as “informal” now that it was being worn primarily for exceptional occasions.   

The solution for most sartorial and etiquette authorities was to adopt the “semi-formal” classification that had first begun to appear in the 1930s thus placing the dinner jacket in the middle of the formal hierarchy.  While this term became common by the early fifties its interpretation was varied as evidenced by the1955 edition of Emily Post’s Etiquette:  

Merely to clear away much confusion: Semi-formal does not mean women in formal evening dresses and men in business suits.  In communities where the tail coat is worn, semi-formal means dinner jackets (tuxedos) and simple evening dresses.  In others where the dinner jacket is formal, semi-formal would mean men in dark sack suits and women in so-called cocktail dresses. 

The underlying need for Mrs. Post’s advice illustrates the increasing relativization of formality following the war:  With every passing decade standards would be dictated less by like-minded “patrician” authorities and more by the democratic tastes of various socio-economic groups.  The result would be an ongoing dilution of universal conventions and increasing confusion on the part of young adults seeking to elevate their social status.

• Relaxed Classic Style

Although the business suit’s wartime acceptability after six o’clock would remain permanent, the dinner jacket was by no means out of the picture.  With war’s end came celebration and prosperity which provided plenty of excuses for Americans to dress up once again.  No longer required to ration fabric, the boxy double-breasted with wide lapels became the jacket of choice especially after Esquire launched the “Bold Look” for menswear in 1948 effectively marking the country’s independence from the long-dominant British custom tailors who tended to favor more conservative styling. 

That same year the encyclopedic Vogue’s Book of Etiquette listed some relatively new dinner shirt alternatives.  Besides the formal stiff-front shirt with wing collar and the less formal semi-starched pleated model with stiff fold collar, the post-war man could also choose a soft-collar shirt either in silk - with plain or pleated bosom - or in broadcloth.  According to the book the latter was “the most informal and probably the most usual.”

Other than the new shirt options, though, semi-formal evening wear in the late 1940s was pretty much identical to its pre-war incarnations.  Styles did not truly begin to change until 1950 when Esquire introduced two new concepts that would influence men’s wear for the next decade.  One was the “Mr. T” look; a conservative silhouette featuring natural shoulders and trim, straight lines.   The editors’ other contribution was the “American Informal” concept that highlighted “the greatest trend to date in men’s fashions: American Informality built right into even your dress and ‘formal’ clothes.” 

Comfort was a vital component of this latter fashion and even formal wear worsted became lighter during the decade, eventually weighing in at about 10 ounces to the yard.  The visual manifestations of this slightly relaxed formality were the streamlined shawl collar and the understated cummerbund waist covering which appeared more and more often as the double-breasted jacket gave way to the single-breasted model.  Add to this a turndown collar shirt and narrow bat wing tie and the result was the quintessential fifties tuxedo. 

• Summer Colors

Thanks to the arrival of tropical worsted in 1940 and the relaxed standards of formality introduced by the war, warm-weather attire became increasingly popular throughout the decade.  The inclusion of a "summer evening" category in Esquire's 1948 wedding dress chart made it evident that the white dinner jacket was no longer the exclusive realm of posh resorts and cruises but was now the average American's standard garment for formal summer nights.   In fact, it was mandatory for semi-formal summer weddings according to the magazine. 

As before the war, many etiquette and style authorities continued to allow color in waistcoats and cummerbunds but there were now a couple of twists.  One change was that color be limited to maroon.  The other development was that experts frequently recommended – or even insisted – that colored cummerbunds have matching bow ties.  This dictum would prove to be a harbinger of significant changes to come.  

• Ready for a Change

The first ten years following the war were a period of transition as a new America sought to move beyond the traditions of yesteryear yet was unsure of how to replace them.  Consequently, while the rules on when to wear a tuxedo had changed quite drastically after the war, the rules on how to wear it remained essentially the same.  Popular evening wear styles may have tended towards the informal by the early 1950s but the return of Esquire’s “correct dress” charts in 1952 was a reminder that conformity to traditional values was every American’s duty in the ongoing Cold War.  After a decade of such caution though, the country began to grow restless with the prevailing conservatism and black-tie fashions were set to catch up with the modern age.