Preface: A Timeless Appeal

Story of the Guide

Using the Guide

Story of the Guide: My Black-Tie Journey

Novice Beginnings

It all began with a ship.  In the summer of 2002 I booked passage on the 2004 inaugural transatlantic crossing of the Queen Mary 2, Cunard’s recently announced and highly anticipated ocean liner.  I had never been interested in tourist cruising before but the romance and tradition of such a maiden voyage was irresistible. 

It went without saying that a tuxedo would be an essential component of this experience yet I was reluctant to opt for the rental option.  My primary concern was that the quality of the onboard rentals was an unknown factor whereas the retail process would avail me of the expertise needed to assemble an appropriate outfit.   Knowing that such an historic sailing would inevitably draw patrician travelers from both sides of the Atlantic I could only imagine the opulent finery they would don for the ship's formal nights – particularly the perennially well-dressed Europeans.  Having never attended an upscale social event in my life, my greatest nightmare was to arrive at my first shipboard dinner looking like a forty-year-old prom date. 

My suspicions of a formalwear class system were confirmed a month later when I attended my premier black-tie event as a sort of dry run for the QM2.  Although I rented a seemingly traditional tuxedo I discovered that there were a number of subtle differences between my attire and that of the more well-heeled gentlemen in attendance.   As I began my shopping quest in earnest I looked forward to having formalwear retailers explain these nuances to me so that I could be sure to incorporate them into my own ensemble.  

Unfortunately, I soon realized that through their salespeople and their web sites these supposed specialists regularly dispensed advice that was either contradictory or completely inaccurate.  Time and again I would ask for guidance on classic etiquette only to have teenage clerks inform me that there were no rules then steer me towards the latest formal fads which they cheerfully assured me were “really popular”.    

But I am not one to give up easily and so I subsequently turned my sights toward less commercial online resources and after a number of unsuccessful attempts I finally stumbled across a couple of sites that offered educated descriptions of classic black tie (which I would later realize were verbatim copies of Alan Flusser’s first books).  Although the absence of illustrations was frustrating, the written details were enough to help me purchase a tuxedo that turned out to be more authentic than those of many other passengers aboard the long-awaited QM2 crossing.   Best of all, I had managed to assemble my outfit on a reasonable budget.

Intermediate Discoveries

Little did I know that the conclusion of my ocean voyage was just the beginning of the next phase of my black-tie journey.   Now that I owned a tuxedo I planned on attending formal events as often as possible yet my initial research had left many lingering questions and I remained perplexed by the web’s relative paucity of informed advice.  Having realized that the majority of online information was simply the same few pieces of advice pasted onto different sites by webmasters oblivious to their frequent contradictions, I decided that the only way to get truly authoritative answers was to turn to published resources. 

So it was that over the next two years I discovered the wonders of the Toronto Reference Library’s outstanding collection of historical menswear volumes - Esquire’s Encyclopedia of 20^th Century Men’s Fashions proved particularly invaluable - as well as Alan Flusser’s superb Dressing the Man.   And in order to maximize the opportunities to wear my ever improving evening wardrobe I made numerous visits to the library’s etiquette section to find out all I could about contemporary black-tie tradition.   When I eventually found myself advising the Merriam-Webster Dictionary on the etymology of "black tie", I knew that I was well past the rookie stage.

The discovery process during these years had proven so rewarding that I was compelled to share my findings with the world.  Thrilled with the sophisticated maturity that black tie had brought to my life, I wanted to encourage all young men to experience this gloriously sublime passage into adulthood.  Discouraged at the realization that many of my initial purchases were subsequently revealed to be sub-standard, I also wanted to help others avoid the same expensive pitfalls.  And frustrated by the extensive misinformation being spread about black-tie customs, I wanted to help preserve the noble tradition so that future generations would not be robbed of its genteel pleasure.  

And so it was that in the spring of 2006 I began to refine the results of my research and create the kind of web site I wished had existed during my Queen Mary 2 preparations.

Then I decided to get serious.  A vital component of my site would be the visuals missing from most other resources and the vintage formalwear illustrations used by the Esquire and Flusser books were incomparable.  To seek out more of these images I returned to the reference library to visit its periodical collection.  I will never forget the first time the staff brought me the bound copies of original 1930s Esquire issues – I thought I had died and gone to sartorial heaven.    

What followed was another two years of research which can only be described as thesis-level study.  Hundreds of hours were spent reviewing tens of thousands of pages of period magazines in major libraries from New York to Vancouver.  Hundreds more hours were also put into scouring printed and online resources for historical etiquette and contemporary attire information.  And to top off my academic research I continued to upgrade my black-tie kit and wear it for “field research” expeditions such attending opening night performances, fund-raising galas and even another cruise.  (Hey, it’s a tough job but someone had to do it.)

This advanced stage of study was done not just out of curiosity but also out of necessity.  After having discovered the existence of online communities of highly-knowledgeable menswear aficionados, I realized that if I was going to bill my site as a definitive authority then it would not be enough just to repeat the teachings of existing authorities.   (Sadly, the free ride of relying on rudimentary web design and technical writing skills would also have to come to an end.)   Thus as soon as I finished posting the site’s various core sections I set to work completely overhauling them, a process that brings me up to spring of 2008.

End Result

If the past six years have taught me nothing else it is that no version of the site will ever truly be final.  Nonetheless, I consider The Black Tie Guide to be complete now that I have acquired the firsthand sources needed to back up its claims and opinions.  Future revisions will only be peripheral such as the updating of contemporary trends and the addition of extra historical or sartorial tidbits that I may come across over time. 

I am extremely proud of the final result – particularly the groundbreaking historical research – and even prouder of the impact it is having on readers.  Every time I receive a grateful e-mail from a newly converted advocate or a longtime believer it makes all the years of hard work worthwhile. 

I look forward to a journey that I know will continue for the rest of my life.  And I truly hope that finding this site will be the beginning of yours.         

Peter Marshall

Toronto, Canada