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 (Pt 1: late '70s)

Classic Revival (Pt 2: 1980s)

Dress-Down Days (1990s)

Jet Age: Mid-Century Modern

The shimmering sheen of imported sheer silk shantung glistens like a reflection of a golden sun shot with sparking undertones of blue water.

        dinner jacket description, Esquire, February 1954

• All Systems Go

By the late 1950s the man in the gray flannel suit was looking for a wardrobe that better represented the modern world in which he was living.  The advent of jet travel and space flight would inspire streamlined styles and synthetic materials not only in his automobile, furniture and appliances but in his attire as well.   Whether before or after six o'clock, his clothes would come to reflect America's unrivalled economic prosperity and its accompanying brash sense of confidence.

• Colored Jackets

With the somewhat relaxed political climate in the mid-1950s came the first true innovation in evening wear since the war: colored dinner jackets.  Technically, this trend had begun in the 1940s when formal wear retailers began offering coats in blue and maroon but these were relatively conservative hues and rarely seen.  The true revolution in warm-weather jackets kicked off around 1954 when an Esquire “Midwinter Getaway” pictorial featured a tropical cruiser decked out like a Las Vegas lounge singer and described his formal ensemble in almost poetic prose:

The [dinner jacket’s] shimmering sheen of imported sheer silk shantung glistens like a reflection of a golden sun shot with sparking undertones of blue water.  Silk shantung slacks pick up the jacket’s blue.  A black-ground silk cummerbund and tie, allied to the trousers’ black side stripes, add to smooth sailing with a gold-and-silver Chinese dragon design. 

A year later the trend expanded with the introduction of “parfait colors”.  The February issue of Esquire depicted jacket hues with soda fountain names such as “crushed strawberry” and “French vanilla” which a man could choose for his Caribbean sailing safe in the knowledge that “no one will mistake him for the steward or an errant bartender”. In 1956 iridescent “peacock tones” were added to the mix thanks to the availability of metallic threads and a couple of years later patterned fabric began to appear in formal wear running the gamut from paisley to batik.  The consistent factor in this striking array of options was that the jacket style was invariably a shawl collar that was either self-faced or trimmed in contrasting black. 

By the early sixties the newly popular loud colors and attention-grabbing patterns had virtually replaced the classic white summer coat on the pages of menswear magazines.  And although the fashion periodicals continued to pay lip service to the stricture that limited these showy alternatives to warm-weather occasions, their appearance in winter pictorials shot in trendy New York hotspots (such as the city's newly popular "discotheques") belied the fact that such jackets were transitioning from limited-use formal wear into all-purpose informal wear. 

Keeping pace with evening wear’s new looks were contemporary fabrics equally suitable for the new jet age.  Wool and rayon blends that had originated in the late 1940s became increasingly popular in tuxedos during this time thanks to the synthetic material’s lighter weight, better crease resistance and easier care.  Mohair, silk shantung and materials with nubby finishes also became more common as the fifties progressed and seersucker was added to the mix in 1961.   

• The Updated Classic: Black Tie Deluxe

Despite the explosion of color in semi-formal wear, traditional tuxedo styles remained the most popular choice for most men.  The classic dinner suit's only acquiescence to the peacock trend was the introduction of “dusk grey”, excitedly described by the writers of the January 1954 Esquire as a more modern and dramatic alternative to conventional black or midnight blue.  Depicted with lapel facings in a contrasting black barathea, the magazine suggested the new formal suits be paired with suede slip-ons and a dusk grey homburg hat. 

A more significant change in the appearance of the classic dinner suit was its adaptation of the Continental look.  Emerging in the late 1950s from Italy, this style featured shorter, more fitted,  squarish shoulder jackets and cuffless trousers.  It became the basis of the English Mod style of the early ‘60s and when combined with a concurrent return to elegance in men’s attire the result was a traditional style with some distinctly contemporary twists. 

Dinner jacket lapels were once again popular in the peaked style but they also began to sport the decidedly informal notch option as well as the cloverleaf (a shawl collar with a rounded-edge notch) and the L shape (a sort of notched lapel with a lapel that was wider than the collar).  The jacket’s facings also became more elaborately decorated over the years, beginning with braiding and contrasting textured edging in the late fifties and progressing to embroidered, brocaded or jacquarded motifs on a satin base. These embellishments were applied not only to lapels but also to turned-back sleeve cuffs and often pocket edgings.  When executed in black-on-black tones and set against a mohair background, the overall effect could be genuinely swank.  

Underneath the formal jacket often lay the newly reincarnated waistcoat - now commonly referred to as a "vest" in America – which was frequently made of colorful patterned silk.  Also resurrected from black-tie limbo was the butterfly shape bow tie which had formerly been eclipsed by the straight-end batwing style.  Both accessories were ideal palettes to add modern flair to the traditional tuxedo.

• Decorative Shirts and Accessories

Paralleling the increasingly ornate jacket jackets and waistcoats, the stylish formal shirt of the time began displaying columns of understated ruffles or subtly embroidered lace either along the placket or across the entire front of the shirt.  After the style appeared on fashion-forward celebrities at the 1959 Academy Awards the patterns and effects offered by formal shirt manufacturers became increasingly eye-catching.   Other options for shirt bosoms included an ever wider variety of pleats and tucks, frequently with fly fronts that did not require any studs.

Another vogue of the mid-fifties was to wear colored and patterned bow ties with matching cummerbunds or “cummervests” and this trend continued through the decade even with the introduction of the dressier Continental look.   Other trendsetters began to experiment with wearing their bow ties tucked under their collar points or opting for the newly invented continental tie or "cummer-tie" instead (see sidebar).  Dark suede footwear also became acceptable alternatives in the early sixties.

• Etiquette: Concessions

Attire

As trendy as they might be, the unconventional jackets and shirts of the period were the exception rather than the rule and classic black tie remained relatively conservative even as the Peacock Revolution arrived on America’s shores in 1965.  In fact, in New York as well as in Europe, tropical-weight black dinner jackets were preferable for all formal evening occasions, even in summer.

In the 1963 edition of The Complete Book of Etiquette Amy Vanderbilt begrudgingly allowed for colored or patterned dinner jackets but limited their appropriateness to cruises and suggested they were best left to the young.  She also continued to insist that the only acceptable alternate color for a warm-weather bow tie was maroon.  Conversely, Vanderbilt was still sanctioning the notched lapel as an informal alternative to the shawl collar (advice she first put forward in 1952) while most other etiquette and style authorities did not even deign to acknowledge its existence until the 1980s.

The 1965 edition of Etiquette: the Blue Book of Social Usage had been completely revised for a new generation by Emily Post’s granddaughter Elizabeth but its evening wear protocol, while significantly condensed, offered equally limited concessions to modern trends.  Like her contemporary, Post now acknowledged plaid and patterned jackets or cummerbunds to be acceptable but only in summer and only for “less formal” parties.  New blended materials were allowable for tuxedos provided they were not shiny. And while bow ties were permitted to match colored cummerbunds, a black sash or a waistcoat of any style still called for standard black neckwear.  

Occasion

The 1965 Emily Post book no longer attempted to list specific occasions when black tie was required, offering instead the umbrella provision that “it’s correct on almost every formal occasion”.  According to the author these occasions continued to include the opera (particularly in the boxes and orchestra seats) and opening night at the theater.  Movie premieres were another type of soiree that called for tuxedos as GQ explained in its coverage of the gala opening of My Fair Lady in New York:

What you wear to a movie premiere - or to a theater first night - is a dinner jacket.  Tails are for the opera or that rare premiere, usually followed by a charity ball, when white tie is specified.  And, of course, many appear, incorrectly, in dark suits (including those who wear a bow tie in the hope of looking evening-suited in a shadowy lobby)."

In a testament to the sophistication of attendees, the writers did not observe a single suit being worn at this particular gala event. 

At the same time, a lowering of standards for wedding attire actually led to a rise in the popularity of the dinner jacket at nuptial ceremonies.  Previously only the tailcoat and dark suit had been considered appropriate for such religious occasions while the tuxedo had been discouraged as being too "frivolous".  Now tuxedos were acceptable in church at even the most formal of weddings.  The only caveat was that the coats be strictly limited to black or white according to the season, regardless of whether they appeared on groomsmen or guests. 

One other contemporary concession made by both Mrs. Post and Mrs. Vanderbilt was to acknowledge the practice of renting one's formal wear instead of owning it.  However, this allowance applied only to near-obsolete tailcoats and cutaways.  Tuxedos still were expected to be pertinent part of a man’s wardrobe, particularly, as Mrs. Vanderbilt articulated, “if he is going to have an active social life in sophisticated circles.”

Finally, it is noteworthy that Mrs. Vanderbilt revised her correspondence etiquette to indicate that "black tie" should be specified on dinner invitations rather than expecting guests to infer this based on the formality of the invite as was previously the custom.  "Unless black tie is written on the dinner invitation," she instructed, "the guest should assume that street dress will be worn."

• Relative Formality

In the classic days of the 1930s informal variations of black tie – double-breasted or white jackets, cummerbunds, and colored accessories – had been limited to warm-weather affairs.  Thirty years later the tuxedo’s variations were significantly less formal and were beginning to appear year round.  Consequently black tie evolved from a clear-cut two-tier system into more of a sliding scale principle where the appropriateness of various options was judged in the context of an occasion’s formality.   Furthermore, many of the tuxedo’s modern iterations were so unconventional that the suit and the dress code could no longer be considered synonymous.  “Black tie” would henceforth become specifically associated with the most traditional styles of semi-formal wear while “tuxedo” would often mean little more than flashy party clothes.

This redefined status reflected a larger shift in social mores wherein the general concept of “formal” had become increasingly subjective.   The questioning of tradition would become only more pronounced in the years ahead as the first post-war generation began to rebel against their parents’ conservative values.  In the process, time-honored black-tie convention would be brought to the verge of extinction.