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.

For the record, in America, there are only five dress codes that should ever be printed on an invitation. Formal, Semi-formal, Informal, Casual and Costume.

…

Semi-Formal (or Black Tie) – Semi-Formal means  Black tie. Whether we call it a dinner suit or Tuxedo, it’s all the same. And this mean full on black tie right down to the cummerbund and shiny shoes. And a black bow tie! Always. No long tie, black or whatever. Ever.

Preach on, brother.

But just as sad? The flip-flops.

Mourners also sported short-shorts, undershirts, dirty tees, and many pairs of infamous Crocs. It was a Casual Friday gone horribly wrong, as if everyone’s destination was Fenway Park, not a public casket viewing at the Kennedy Library.

“Dressing down” is nothing new — fine diners have long complained about the slow erosion of appropriate attire. But what has happened to the dignity of a nation when you can’t even dress properly for a wake?

Regardless of what you thought of Senator Kennedy (and one has to believe that a person who took time out of their day to pay their respects thought a good deal of him,) what in the world would induce you to attend his viewing wearing what is described in this article?  If you can’t respect the man, then respect his family.  If you can’t respect his family, then respect yourself.  If you can’t respect yourself enough to dress appropriately, do the decent thing and just stay home.

The hat is the ultimum moriens of respectability.

From: The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. viii.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

A cap, by the way, is not a hat.  It is a cap.  A hat has a brim that goes all the way around.  The fedora, the Homburg, the Trilby, the top hat, the Panama, the coke or bowler, those are hats.

There are rules about wearing hats.  The most basic rule about the hat is that if you’re unsure whether you should remove it or not you probably should.  The custom of tipping or removing one’s hat is said to come from the same place as the military salute.  In medieval times, knights would lift the visors of their helmets to show their faces as a sign of respect and their empty hands to show that they weren’t holding their weapons and therefore meant no harm.  It’s a custom that has persisted since that time.

A gentleman should remove his hat when he is indoors, except in those places that are equivalent to a public street or public location.  Such locations include lobbies and corridors of public buildings, post offices, malls and department stores and in the elevators of public buildings EXCEPT when a lady is present.  When a lady enters the elevator, the hat must be removed unless your hands are full of packages or the like and removal is impractical, in which case you should nod to acknowledge her.  Replace your hat when you exit the elevator and enter the corridor.

When you remove your hat, take care to hold it in such a way that only the outside of the hat is visible.  Consider the lining of your hat to be underwear, it should not be seen. (The same is true of braces or suspenders, by the way, they should never be seen.)

A gentleman removes his hat both indoors and outdoors when he is being introduced to a stranger or is saying goodbye to a lady or an elder.  It is removed when speaking with a lady, an elder or a member of the clergy.  In the United States it is removed during the playing of the National Anthem or when the American Flag is passing.  It is removed during funerals and the passing of funeral processions.  It may be removed when passing a lady on the street, but tipping (a slight lifting of the brim) is a quite acceptable substitute as a passing gesture.

It is considered to be an insult to tip your hat to another gentleman with whom you are not acquainted, it is akin to calling him a woman and is not done.  It is, of course, a sign of disrespect and the mark of a cad to leave your hat on when it would be proper to remove it.

Sometime soon I’ll write on the different types of hats and caps and when they’re proper to be worn.