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)

Classic Revival (Part 1): Back in Black

Now hear this, America.  Formal wear is back on top.  Back and better than ever.

GQ, October 1974

•Conservative Tide

Thanks to old wedding portraits, vintage funk & soul bands and classic Lawrence Welk Show reruns, 1970s formal wear has become synonymous with the height of kitsch.  However, the latter part of the decade actually witnessed the return of classic tuxedo styles not seen since the 1940s resulting in a marked paradox in black-tie fashions.  Black-tie etiquette was equally schizophrenic during this time as traditional sources rejected any further changes to convention while contemporary authorities proclaimed historical precedent to be all but irrelevant.

The emerging black-tie renaissance was an outcome of an overall return of conservatism as yesterday’s hippies transformed into tomorrow’s yuppies. As counterculture gave way to convention, a “delighted” formalwear manufacturer announced in a 1974 ad that Americans had begun to rediscover “proms and galas, balls and banquets, intimate champagne suppers and candlelight cruises”.  Prompted by the country’s newfound appetite for elegance and luxury After Six couldn’t be happier to welcome “the millions of American men who grew up deprived of the romance and debonair elegance of formal wear and the memorable moments for which it is worn.”

Dovetailed with this social transition was the migration of women’s fashion designers into the new world of men’s couture.  Practically overnight, the pages of the increasingly popular GQ began parading formal wear styled by likes of Pierre Cardin and Yves St. Laurent and its featured tuxedos which had never cost more than $175 prior to 1969 gave way to decadent designer creations priced anywhere from $400 for a silk dinner jacket to $900 for a Piero Dimitri evening suit.  

• Late 70s Fashion: The Classics Reborn

By 1974 “formal” was no longer a four letter word in America.  Consequently, informal tuxedo variations like the colorful jackets and shirts that had been so popular for the last decade were swept away by a tide of classic black and white.  Edwardian excesses like velvet trim, satin edging and ruffled shirt fronts followed suit shortly after. 

Not content with simply discarding the contemporary innovations of the sixties, period designers also set about restoring black-tie details not seen since the tuxedo’s golden age.  The September 1974 issue of Esquire exhibited a designer formal suit of “unerring elegance” featuring wool-gabardine material, grosgrain lapels and the return of the long-absent matching vest described as “a classic touch that looks new again”.   The traditionally styled ensemble was finished off with a flourish by a wing collar, appearing  for the first time since World War II. 

During this time patent leather pumps also returned to popularity and the gradual narrowing of formal neckwear precipitated the reappearance of the straight-end bow tie.  The renaissance of classic black tie arguably reached its zenith in 1979 when designers reintroduced the U-shaped waistcoat, a formal wear detail virtually unknown for the previous fifty years.  When combined with a return to conventional styling – looser cuts, narrower lapels and straighter trousers – some late seventies tuxedos appeared nearly indistinguishable from those of black tie's 1930s heydays. 

There were some new twists on the old classics, though.   A number of single-breasted jackets were sporting two or three buttons and contemporary waistcoats were being styled more like suit vests with a high cut and no lapels.  The wing collar shirt in particular had undergone significant changes.  Originally introduced in the 1960s, the modern version had a soft, attached collar instead of one that was detachable and stiff, and the previously rare appearance of a pleated bosom was now standard.   There was no doubt that this new style was much more comfortable than the original but in traditionalists' minds it was also infinitely less formal - particularly as its once regal collar became reduced to paltry proportions towards the decade's end.

• Late 70s Etiquette: Paradox

Attire

In December 1974 GQ announced "There's a new day dawning and it's bringing back manners . . .  refresh your memory with a copy of Amy Vanderbilt and/or Emily Post."  Readers who heeded the advice and turned to the 1975 edition of Emily Post’s Etiquette would find that black-tie guidelines were essentially unchanged since ten years prior.  While the author did address recent transgressions such as string ties, turtlenecks and ruffled shirts it was only to dismiss them as examples of passing fads.

In 1978 a completely revised edition of the Amy Vanderbilt Complete Book of Etiquette noted that evening wear seemed to have become more formal even as men’s daytime dress grew more informal.  First and foremost, classic black remained the preferred choice, particularly in winter; colors, patterns and piping were simply “not elegant”.  Conversely, informal summer black-tie evenings still allowed for colorful jackets or trousers worn with black counterparts.    Underneath a man's jacket, the new author advised that white, off-white or pastel shirts in cotton or silk were acceptable but agreed with her contemporary that ruffled, flouncy shirts were not in good taste (“and never were, in the opinion of many”). 

As in previous years, fashion authorities of this period offered much more lenient guidelines than did traditional etiquette consultants.  Whether due to ignorance of custom or simple ambivalence towards it, they began issuing formalwear protocols that contradicted nearly a century of tradition.  At the same time that they were hailing evening wear as “an elegant island of rules and procedures . . . that has not been washed away by the tide of fashion democracy,” menswear magazines were also erroneously referring to the tailcoat as a type of tuxedo jacket and incorrectly depicting the dinner jacket as being suitable for daytime wear.  Despite the best efforts of the Emily Post and Amy Vanderbilt authors to repudiate them, these fallacies became accepted as fact by the American public - and still are to this day. 

The 1976 bestseller Dress for Success was groundbreaking for heralding the end of fashion’s capitulation to youthful rebellion and offering statistical evidence that conservative colors and styles were essential for a man to advance in business.  However, author John T. Molloy’s treatment of formal wear – arguably the most recognizable symbol of success – was meager, derisive and ill-formed.  While Molloy would backtrack considerably when he later revised this chapter, by that time the original volume would have been used for over a decade as ”a textbook by business schools and the management of America’s blue chip corporations”, no doubt tainting black tie’s integrity in the eyes of millions of men.

Two years later, the GQ-inspired hardcover Dressing Right offered substantially more attention to the topic of formal attire but with mixed results.  While the author included the rules of classic black tie as offered by executive of the American Formalwear Association, his own comments revealed a cynicism and ignorance of tradition and a marked preference for contemporary alternatives:  “While fashion purists bemoan it, tuxedos come not only in apricot, but lemon, lime, chocolate and assorted flavors, complete with coordinated shirts and ties.  When the invitation says ‘Black Tie’ usually that enjoinder only means that the guest is expected to wear a dinner jacket or something ‘formal’.  What style or what color is often beside the point.”

Occasion

Whereas fashion pundits offered much more latitude for black-tie attire than did etiquette authorities, the opposite was true when it came to black-tie traditions.  In 1977 GQ was still prescribing tuxedos for diplomatic receptions, balls, and business dinners but contemporary Emily Post and Amy Vanderbilt guides suggested that evening wear was being used far less often these days.  In fact, conventional black-tie occasions such as opera performances, public dinners and transatlantic crossings were no longer even mentioned in the 1978 Vanderbilt publication.

On the brighter side, the Post book noted that tuxedos were once again being worn in some locales to America’s newly re-popularized proms.  And while formal transatlantic crossings had been reduced to a single ship (Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2) due to the economy and convenience of jet travel, pleasure cruises were steadily increasing in popularity making “formal night” a tradition for ever more travelers.

When it came to black tie by invitation, Mrs. Post finally conceded that the genteel precept of expecting formal invitations to imply formal attire was not practical in a post-modern world.  Consequently, she accepted that it was no longer considered gauche to specify “black tie” on such invites - an admission that Mrs. Vanderbilt had made back in 1963.  Ironically, just as these traditional authorities were updating their advice in order to eliminate dress code confusion, American hosts found a new way to confound their guests: Black Tie Optional had now been added to the formal lexicon.

• Status & Symbols

In 1973 the authors of Esquire’s Encyclopedia of 20^th Century Men’s Fashions had proclaimed that "formal evening wear has ceased to be a status symbol.  It is simply the kind of clothing a man likes to put on when he wants to look and feel his handsomest."  Like the title of the book, their proclamation turned out to be somewhat premature.  Far more accurate was the observation made five years later in Dressing Right: "Formalwear customs vary according to geographic regions and - let's be honest - social strata."

It was true that for mainstream America – and particularly its youth - the tuxedo was now largely regarded as a colorful rental outfit limited to proms and weddings.  This general perception of formal wear as a gimmick was particularly evident in the popularity of the irreverent tuxedo T-shirt that appeared around this time.

However, there was a tremendous difference between the cheap, trendy tuxedos worn on cruise ships, for example, and the premium quality, conventionally-styled ensembles seen at exclusive galas.  Fortunately, America’s elite had acted as unassuming guardians of the dinner suit’s exclusive status throughout the darkest years of the counterculture revolution.  Consequently, when the yuppie phenomenon emerged in the late seventies the advertising industry was quick to adopt the conventional tuxedo as the ideal embodiment of their craving for a luxury lifestyle; in the winter 1978 issue of GQ alone there were six separate advertisements for premium liquors, colognes and that utilized the classic dinner suit’s impeccable appeal.

By the end of the decade black tie had survived its darkest years and was ready for a bright new chapter in its ongoing history.