My unnatural fascination with Royal Ascot
The season is upon us, which means that it’s time for my annual bemoaning the lack of any formal events of its sort in the United States. I refer, of course, to the horse racing at Royal Ascot and in particular the dress code for gentlemen in the Royal Enclosure.
Morning suits, no exceptions; top hats, no exceptions; go right or go home.
A rider and an observer at Ascot
As Men’s Flair notes in today’s post, formal does not necessarily imply bland and certainly not colorless. The best dressed men at Ascot understand that color is an important component of men’s dress, particularly in morning attire.
They further note that an ascot or cravat is positively improper for morning attire, which, of course, it is. To bring this thing back to the Masonic part of the site title, this is something I’ve had a problem with for a long, long time… as far back as when I was a Grand Lodge and a Scottish Rite officer. So many times I attended daytime events wearing a dinner suit, and it’s just wrong. On the rare occasions that the dress code for officers DID call for morning suits, we never wore the appropriate four-in-hand ties, always a cravat.
Appalling.
I understand that in the U.S. when one thinks formal that the mind never travels any farther than the dinner suit, such is our programming, but it is and has always been inappropriate for a gentleman to wear a dinner suit before, you know, dinner time. That is to say, 6:00PM. I would love to see our Grand Lodge officers setting a better example for our members. The Grand Lodge, of course, has its own protocols, but they’re not necessarily appropriate. Perhaps someday they’ll assign someone the task of steering the ship of etiquette in our grand jurisdiction. Until then, I’ll just bite my tongue and be the stroller in a sea of tuxedos in the middle of the bloody afternoon.
Magpie Mason
on May 21st, 2010
What ho!
Should one really wear shirts, neckwear, and waistcoasts of such colors?
Signed,
Anon.
Jeff Naylor
on May 21st, 2010
Without question, particularly in Old Blighty where they go a bit further with shirt colors than we do here. Positively proper for morning wear, we’re entirely too staid here.
I wouldn’t recommend it for evening wear, of course.
mp
on May 23rd, 2010
@Magpie: YES! The problem is that because we have gotten so far removed, in the USA, from proper men’s attire, especially day wear, that we think it should be somber and boring, and the ladies think we have no color sense or understanding of how to deal with picking accessories.
If we had more occasions for semi-formal or formal day wear (from strollers, to morning suits, to morning coat ensembles) we’d understand that one MUST accessorize with color.
As for evening wear, as Br. Jeff said, not as much, BUT: one must know the rules before one can bend them or break them tastefully, as show over on blacktieguide.com.
It IS do-able, but mustn’t be overdone.