A Recent History of Evening Wear
Evening Wear
It seems to me that a good starting place is probably a discussion of what, exactly, we’re discussing and its history and etiquette.
First, the term “tuxedo,” as well as its even more vulgar cousin, “tux,” are singularly American in origin, coming to us from New York. In 1886, New York socialites James Brown Potter and his wife Cora took a holiday in England, where they happened to meet the Prince of Wales at a ball. The Prince invited the Potters to visit Sandringham, his estate in Norfolk, and when Mr. Potter inquired about the dress code there the Prince recommended that Potter visit his London tailor and purchase a “dinner jacket,” a short garment of his own design that he preferred to the tailcoat, worn with a rakish black bow tie.
Upon returning to New York, Potter wore his new dinner jacket to his gentleman’s club, Tuxedo Park. There, several members including Pierre Lorillard (of the well-known tobacco products family) admired Potter’s new clothing a great deal, declared it to be more appropriate than the tailcoat for informal dinners, and had copies made by local tailors for their own use at the club. (One envisions the Drones Club at this point.)
One evening, several members of the Club went together wearing their dinner jackets to Delmonico’s, the only dining establishment in the city that didn’t require men to dress for dinner. The Tuxedo Park gentlemen explained to the other diners who had never seen such a getup that this was how the members preferred to dress for dinner at the Club. Thus, dinner jackets came to be known in the United States as “tuxedos.”
There was still a common understanding, however, that at any function where ladies were present the tailcoat was the expected form of dress, and that this new tuxedo, or dinner jacket, was only appropriate for stag events, such as dinner at the Club.
The aforementioned Pierre Lorillard, clearly a rake and a bounder, violated all known standards of decency by attending Tuxedo Park’s first Autumn Ball wearing his short jacket. He was dismissed, of course, for being inappropriately attired, and the society pages of the newspaper reported that Lorillard “looked like a royal footman.”
Despite the indignity heaped upon Mr. Lorillard, the black tie dinner jacket, or tuxedo, if you must, grew in popularity and quickly supplanted the white tie tailcoat as the preferred dress for more formal occasions.
It is interesting to note that the concept of dressing for dinner was originally to change out of clothing worn all day when the primary mode of transport involved a horse, with the smell and grime that attends that form of locomotion and city life in general. After the advent of the automobile, the custom remained as an indication of one’s refinement, always wishing to be as attractive as possible when meeting for social engagements.
The dinner jacket is always considered evening wear, it is improper to be worn during daylight hours, the only exception being when an event begins in late afternoon and is expected to last well into the evening. Of course, in the summer months it doesn’t get dark until nearly 10:00PM, so etiquette experts have defined “evening” as beginning at 6:00PM or at dark, whichever comes first.
Obviously if a dinner jacket is inappropriate prior to 6:00PM, something else must be considered appropriate formal wear before that hour. That something is morning wear, and we will discuss that in the next post.
Dana
on July 21st, 2009
Jeff, you’ll enjoy this:
When, in 1951, my parents were planning their wedding, they were on a fairly tight budget. My father, who was in the Navy, planned to be wed, quite appropriately, in his dress whites. (And very spiffy he looked, too.) But he tried to come up with something his groomsmen could all wear that would match reasonably well (the days of totally matchy-matchy weddings were not yet upon us) and wouldn’t have to go out and purchase new. He told his mother that he knew they all owned their own tuxedos. Couldn’t they just wear their tuxes to the wedding?
His mother, a woman of great breeding, proud background, and impeccable manners, looked at him, shocked to the core, and said, “John, they might just as well wear their pajamas.”
They quite properly wore dark business suits, and matchy-matchy be damned.
Jeff Naylor
on July 21st, 2009
I love it! The times, they have changed.
Eric
on July 21st, 2009
She tells that story so much better than I do. ;-D
Andrew
on July 25th, 2009
An addendum… Pierre Lorillard was a Brother Mason (a member of Holland Lodge No. 8 in New York City. There is no record in the minutes of what the Brethren of the lodge thought of Brother Lorillard’s “Tuxedo Jacket”, but it seems that the Master disapproved of such informality. To this day, while the regular brethren of the lodge don dinner jackets for our meetings, the Master continues to dress properly for dinner (ie in white tie).
S. Brent Morris
on July 26th, 2009
Waaay back in 1968 when I graduated high school, I had a discussion with two of my buddies, James B. Fredd and John McCray. The topic was whether we should rent or purchase tuxedos for our upcoming prom. We consider our high school prom, one or two proms in college, perhaps a sorority formal (to which we hoped to be invited), and a wedding or two of friends yet to be named. All together we decided the cost or purchasing would pay for itself within the next four years.
I never went to a college prom, but I did to to the formal dance each semester of my fraternity (Delta Sigma Phi). The tux also let me get a job as a wine steward at an upscale restaurant during my senior year, and it was more convenient to wear when I performed as a magician than the white tie and tails I had been wearing. The tails were soon retired.
I doubt that many high school graduates today have such discussions!
Brent
Jeff Naylor
on July 28th, 2009
I think you’re probably quite right, Brent. I don’t know if you’ve seen what young gentlemen are wearing to proms these days, but they’re hardly classic black tie dinner suits. For the most part they’re nothing more than glorified lounge suits with waistcoats and neckties that come in colors to match their dates’ dresses.
Young men are essentially accessories. Which is, I suppose, as it should be, but I’d prefer to see it done a bit more classically. It really is so much more economical to buy than rent a dinner suit if you’re going to wear it more than three times. Coupled with the fact that you can have your own tailored to fit properly, it’s an investment that should be strongly considered.
That is a very interesting addendum, Andrew. I knew Lorillard was a Mason, I didn’t know about the Master insisting on greater formality. Good to know!
MP
on July 31st, 2009
Ah, Br. Jeff – what times, what mores!
I graduated from High School in 1990.
The way _I_ was brought up, a formal evening affair demanded white tie and tails, preferably white picque for the tie and waiscoat.
When I went to go rent said item for my senior prom, the person at the tux shop tried to present me a white tail coat.
Sigh.
I’ll admit, at my first wedding, i screwed up matching the attire – I wore my Army Dress Blues, and my groomsmen were in white tie and tails.
They were formal, I was semi formal.
IF I wear my uniform when I get married again, I will be able to either wear blue mess (short “bolero” cut) with black tie (which is a slight step UP from dinner jacket, but below white tie and tails, so, what should my groomsmen wear, then?) or evening blue mess, which is white tie and waistcoat with the same jacket.
But, were I to get married in the morning, and wear my uniform, what is the appropriate attire for my groomsmen – morning coats/cutaways?
Heck, what would be appropriate attire for ME in uniform during the day for a formal affair?
I could just cheat, and wear my kilt, but even then, a Prince Charlie is an evening jacket.
I’m proud to be in a jurisdiction where we require dinner jackets for Lodge officers, it gave me an excuse to own one.
Jeff Naylor
on August 6th, 2009
You know, we simply don’t discuss appropriateness anymore. People of our age are children of the 60s generation when they stopped talking about appropriateness of dress.
It’s a fascinating thing to me to watch films of baseball games from the 50s and early 60s. People are sitting in the stands at baseball games wearing dress shirts and neckties, jackets and fedoras if the weather supported it. Now the discussion has turned to, “Do I have to wear a suit to a graduation / wedding / church?” It’s amazing to me.