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Vintage Etiquette & Tradition
Vintage Wedding Etiquette

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Retro Tuxedos

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Retro Tuxedos

• The Peacock Revolution: Late '60s-Early '70s

The formal wear aberrations inflicted on American men - particularly in the late 1960s - was limited only by designers' hallucinations.  Here are just a few examples.

The Peacock Revolution began relatively tastefully by simply adding color to jackets . . . (Esquire Dec 1962)	. . . then came subdued patterns . . . (GQ summer 1963 )	. . until it was "anything goes." (GQ Nov 1963)
This After Six ad encouraged men to abandon the tradition of understated evening wear that deferred to the striking appearance of their female companions. (GQ winter 1969)	Pirate-like formal shirts in an ad from 1968.	1970s Ralph Lauren evening wear.  (GQ Nov 1970)
Taking its cue from the new acceptance of open-collared shirts with suits, GQ paired this silver and white paisley dinner jacket with an unbuttoned dress shirt and black silk shantung trousers.  (GQ Nov 1970)	After Six denim tuxedo trimmed with midnight blue velvet lapels, collar and trouser stripes. (GQ Winter 1971/72)	1972 After Six ad featuring a formal shirt rainbow.

• Alternative Formal Wear

In the counterculture of the 1960s “formal” was a four letter word.  As a result, menswear magazines began to favor “evening” as a more innocuous descriptor for the decidedly informal alternatives being offered by manufacturers.  Some examples are shown below.

A "contemporary host outfit" known as an "evening jump suit".  It is embellished with velvet in multiple shades of brown, blue, gold and red. (GQ Feb 1968)	This shirt could be worn tucked into the trousers with a dinner jacket or, at swanky resorts, untucked and without a jacket. (GQ Nov 1967)	"The evening suit, cardigan style."  Mohair jacket with deep center vent but  without buttons or chest pocket .  (GQ Nov 1969)
Champagne colored moiré "evening suit." (GQ winter 1968/69)	"Host" was another common sixties euphemism for "formal".  This designer "host suit" consisted of a horizontally pleated white moiré shirt worn with black moiré trousers sporting a white floral lace stripe. (GQ Feb '68)	Introduced in 1961, the host coat was offered as a "refreshingly new black tie concept, singularly appropriate for those 'relaxed' formal occasions".  Primarily designed for entertaining at home, these shawl collar jackets appeared in a wide variety of colors, patterns and fabrics. (GQ Nov 1961)