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)

Dress-Down Days: Black Tie Optional

These days the black tie is optional and the same goes for the pleated white shirt.

GQ Dec 1997
 

• The Party Continues

It would stand to reason that the recession of the early nineties should have ended the previous decade's zest for the good life but in fact the opposite took place. Cocktail parties and lounges re-emerged on the cultural map as a popular site for socializing, particularly among urban trendsetters in their twenties and thirties.  Those looking to enjoy a classic cigar with their libations could find familiar company at “smokers”, tony soirées that had become hugely popular and often featured a black-tie dress code to complement the evening’s elegance.  Consequently, formalwear sales boomed during this time and not just because of increased rentals: by 1993 one in every four tuxedos was being purchased rather than rented, compared with one in nine during the late 1970s. 

Having survived the recession, the vogue for dressing up was next challenged by the dress-down attitude of the dot com boom.   Once again the trend flourished in the face of adversity.  As the Daily News Record reported in 1998, “the backlash from casual Fridays turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to the formalwear business.  It gave baby boomers and Gen Xers the perfect excuse to splurge on drop-dead tuxedos for their weddings, black-tie parties and those very special evenings.”   Previously found only at formalwear specialists and regular men's wear stores, dinner suits were now being carried by discounters looking to cash in on the black-tie bonanza.     

• Textbook Classics

Just as in the previous decade, consumers who opted for traditional black tie in the 1990s took a very literal approach to the classics. A 1993 Cigar Aficionado titled "In Praise of Elegance" noted how the recent homage to the dinner jacket's golden age had now evolved into a virtual recreation of that era:

If anything, modern tuxedo designs draw inspiration from those worn by the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Fred Astaire and William Powell in the '30s: wide, sweeping satin or grosgrain lapels, often double-breasted with either peaked or shawl lapels; broad, padded shoulders, a slight suppression to the waist and amply cut out, deeply pleated trousers for sweep and swagger.

Gone were the brightly colored accessories of the eighties and in their place were discreet hues and patterns much more in harmony with the conventional black and white palette.

• Contemporary Variations

The '90s Jacket

While the classics remained popular, contemporary trends also gained ground until by the late nineties the one- or two-button notched lapel was the most popular style of dinner jacket followed by single-breasted shawl collar.   "As for the trendy fashions," reported the Daily News Record in 1998, "there are the high-button-stance models, side vents and ticket pockets. Three- and four-button tuxedos have become something of a signature for younger men and double-breasteds do surprisingly well."   Affluent yuppies could also indulge themselves with high-end alternatives such as the velvet, satin and cashmere coats being offered by Oxxford, Brioni and Alfred Dunhill.

Piqué and Fly Fronts, Swept Wings and Straight Collars

The wing collar shirt remained quite popular in the early part of the decade even as it began to appear with some novel variations.   One such innovation was a hem sewn onto the rear of the collar in order to conceal the back portion of the bow tie’s band.  Another option was swept wings: rather than a small portion of the front collar being bent at a 45 degree angle to create small wings, a much larger piece of the collar was folded at a longer angle to create irregular triangles with tips that ended down below the collar.  These were not often seen though as the popularity of the turndown collar grew to a point where it was the preferred choice by the latter part of the decade, either in the traditional spread collar fashion or the newer straight collar style.    Piqué weave also began to appear on formal shirts during the 1990s while the buttoned fly-front that had been introduced during the previous decade continued going strong.

Finished Waistband

During the nineties the waistcoat began to surpass the cummerbund as the preferred method for adding personality to a dinner suit and paisley was the most popular pattern on both, especially for rented formalwear.  Alternatively, more and more men were opting for trousers with finished satin waistbands in lieu of conventional waist coverings.  Although traditionalists condemned this recent innovation as another casualty of the age of convenience and little more than "a formal version of the Sansabelt", it had became popular enough for some formal shirt manufacturers to begin including a fourth stud opening now that the area below the usual three holes was often left exposed by the lack of waist cover.      

• Creatively Informal

Red Carpet Black Tie

According to the Academy Awards web site, the term Creative Black Tie came into fashion speak during the late eighties as the entertainment industry began to redefine party attire with the changing times.   This redefinition flourished in the early nineties and soon GQ was claiming that “these days the black tie is optional [and the] same goes for the pleated white shirt."   Proclamations such as this and pictorials with titles like “Black Tie’s New Informality” and “The Attire Formerly Known as Formal" were highly reminiscent of the magazine's 1960s features on revolutionary formal wear but the accompanying illustrations painted a very different story.  Rather than the previous approach of gleefully disregarding every aspect of the tuxedo's aristocratic history, the new contemporary trends worked within a traditional black-tie framework.  The two-piece suit and the ensemble's black-and-white palette were left intact and innovations were consequently confined to the shirt, tie and waist covering.

The vanguard of this new creativity was the band collared shirt.  Initially GQ depicted the garment as being worn with an open collar, suggesting that it was therefore most appropriate for Black Tie Optional events.  Equally informal were black silk shirts or regular white dress shirts that were also worn unbuttoned, while black turtlenecks were yet another way for the hip and famous to avoid knotting a tie.  For slightly more formal occasions - say the Oscars red carpet ceremony - trendsetters could opt for a button cover for their band collared shirt or they could add a black satin four-in-hand tie to their dress shirts.

Creative Black Tie Backlash

While the Academy Awards web site boasts that “those who walked the Red Carpet helped push the tuxedo into modernity” there are others who would beg to differ.  Almost as soon as GQ started featuring innovations so beloved by the glitterati, the same magazine also began to deride them, with one writer lamenting in December 1997 that the basic black bow tie was being challenged by "everything from bozo bolos to the weird black 'voice box' collar buttons that show up on Academy Awards night”.  Another columnist introduced the virtues of tasteful alternatives (in this case a well cut black cashmere jacket) by observing that "the degradation of formal dress runs to the highest income brackets in the land as the confused rich desperately try not to be mistaken for headwaiters.  I sympathize, but black shirts, band collars, T-shirts, jeans below dinner jackets, leather ties and what I supposed are homages to Bret Maverick are not the answer."

Such sentiments were shared by many fashion writers of the time including the authors of Men’s Wardrobe who offered sage advice for those seeking to emulate their favorite celebrities.  They recommended leaving the Levis, cowboy boots and dinner jacket look to icons like Ralph Lauren in favor of exercising restraint.  "At most formal affairs it is preferable to be quietly chic rather than stridently fashionable," the book counseled. "Never let your clothes speaker louder than you do.” 

• Etiquette: Classic Rules

Attire

While classic attire had become increasingly available since the late seventies, its corresponding protocol had been in short supply up until now.   After decades of GQ writers issuing erroneous etiquette – as recently as 1987 they had instructed readers that clip-on bow ties were “the only way to guarantee an aesthetically pleasing experience” – the magazine was now stringently enforcing the original rules.  It encouraged men to always wear their collar’s wings behind their ties, praised the merits of midnight blue and finally realized that matching bow tie and cummerbund sets were something to be shunned rather than encouraged.  

Discerning dressers also could also find a wealth of advice in their local book shops.  Alan Flusser’s authoritative Clothes and the Man had been expanded and republished in 1996 as Style and the Man.  Following in Flusser's footsteps, the authors of 1988’s Men’s Wardrobe and 1999’s Indispensable Guide to Classic Men’s Clothing provided almost identical rules for creating and personalizing a traditional black-tie wardrobe.  The only notable exception was the latter book’s suggestion that the notched lapel had “earned its place” in black tie’s classic canon.

As for the high priestesses of etiquette, the 1995 edition of the Amy Vanderbilt guide was completely revised by a new author who looked to the past for her advice on the present.  Writer Nancy Tuckerman not only restored the previously omitted section on proper dress but also rescinded some of the more liberal rules that had been added during the seventies.  Colored jackets and trousers and off-white or pastel shirts were no longer an option and, just like GQ, the book finally stopped insisting that a man's bow tie match his cummerbund (although it admitted the practice was still a preference for many). 

The latest Emily Post edition also gained a new author as the series celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1997.  Less conservative than her contemporary, Peggy Post continued to allow for colored or patterned jackets for black-tie parties although she did reintroduce readers to the concept of midnight blue as a correct alternative to black.

Tradition

In addition to the section on correct dress, the Amy Vanderbilt book also restored the specific details of formal clothing for transatlantic crossings, particularly for QE2 passengers traveling in more expensive cabins.  Conversely, etiquette for general cruises underwent a slight relaxing of standards as did that of weddings.  Male guests at a semi-formal wedding were now permitted dark suits in place of tuxedos and black tie was no longer a mandatory alternative to formal daywear at summer and Southern weddings but, rather, an optional replacement.  Unchanged was the news that opera devotees continued to wear black tie for opening nights and gala evenings as well as the book's longstanding preference for black jackets over white, even in summer. 

The Emily Post book also maintained the same dress standards for opera, theatre, cruises and balls.  New to the book's list of formal traditions were debuts, Quinceañeras and proms, with black tie being mandatory for guests of the first type of affair, fairly common for the second and case-by-case for the third.

• Into the New Millennium

By the close of the century black tie’s role as a sartorial emblem of maturity, refinement and success faced an uncertain future in a self-centered age of instant gratification, casual clothes and tabloid television.   Classic couturier Alan Flusser lamented that opportunities to observe evening clothes being worn correctly had become “surprisingly rare” thanks to menswear designers and Hollywood celebrities concocting alternatives motivated by a desire for individuality rather than an appreciation of time-honored tradition.   Whether or not the tuxedo would survive America’s determined pursuit of the lowest common denominator remained to be seen but as black-tie devotees rang in the new millennium they could at least take comfort in the knowledge that the dinner jacket remained the garment of choice for sophisticated revelers around the world.