What Makes A Tuxedo More Formal Than a Suit?

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It’s getting to be that time of year when many of us have the opportunity to take inspiration from James Bond’s evening wear. Black tie, Bond’s signature look, is the most formal evening dress code still widely worn today, since white tie is quite rare and is moving towards costume territory. Black tie necessitates wearing a dinner suit (Tuxedo) or a dinner jacket.

What separates a dinner suit from a regular lounge suit (business suit), and why is it more formal? If we understand the ‘why’ behind the customs, it can help us wear the clothes better.

The Differences Between a Suit and a Dinner Suit

At its most rudimentary, a dinner suit is a black lounge suit with shiny lapel facing (usually silk satin) on the jacket and a shiny stripe down the outseams of the trousers. If you remove the shiny trimmings you get a perfectly good suit, albeit a very dressy black suit. But on the other hand, putting these trimmings on any ordinary black suit won’t necessarily get you a good dinner suit, or at least not a traditional one.

The traditional dinner suit is black or midnight blue with silk lapel facings in black or a matching midnight blue and has jetted pockets without flaps. A single-breasted dinner jacket should have only one button on the front. For double-breasted, the traditional dinner jacket fastens with one button and has two show buttons, but other arrangements are also acceptable. Most traditionally, dinner jackets have no rear vents, but double vents are approriate.

The trousers with a dinner jacket match the jacket, have a silk stripe or braid down each outseam, should be supported with braces or side adjusters and have plain hems. Pleats or no pleats are equally acceptable.

A suit is not limited to any of these details or colours. It doesn’t have silk facings, but it can have any other details found on a dinner suit. The only other thing a dinner jacket can have that a suit jacket generally would not have is a shawl collar.

Suits and dinner suits can both be cut the same way. Any school of tailoring can work just as well for a dinner suit as it can for a suit, though some people prefer their dinner suits to have a more structured silhouette.

Why is a Dinner Suit More Formal?

The dinner suits is only marginally more formal than the lounge suit. They started with a purpose: to eat dinner in. This special purpose makes the garment more formal, but it came about when dressing for dinner was a regular occurrence and was not meant for special occasions. That’s what white tie was for. The dinner suit is a lounge suit meant for the evening. For James Bond, putting on a dinner suit or a dinner jacket is still an ordinary practice. It’s nothing special for him, and it’s one reason he wears it so well.

What makes a dinner suit more formal than a regular suit? It’s not about simplicity, as is commonly repeated. It’s about being more decorative, more delicate and less utilitarian. The simplicity in black tie applies primarily to the usual black-and-white colour scheme, though there are ways to successfully break from that. There are ways to change up the colours for the more advanced dresser, though the bow tie should stay black.

The lapel facings—the dinner jacket’s defining detail—discredit the theory that black tie is about simplicity. This alone makes the dinner jacket more complicated than a suit jacket. Dinner suits are about being decorative. There are other decorative features like the trouser stripe or braid. Most dinner jackets today have covered buttons, which are more decorative than plastic or horn buttons, which are also classic options. Some dinner jackets also have silk-trimmed pocket jets, but while they are acceptable they aren’t traditional.

The single-button fastening of the single-breasted dinner jacket is equally about decorativeness as it is about simplicity. It’s about showing off the dress shirt’s decorative front, and compared to the tradition button-three jacket, the dinner jacket doesn’t need to be buttoned for warmth or to keep out the wind outdoors. It only has one button because additional buttons remind us of the practical origins of jackets with more buttons (even if our suits today are designed for only fastening one button).

More complex and more decorative is the link-button fastening. This gives the jacket a symmetrical front by showing one button on either side of the fastening at the waist thanks to two buttons connected with a long shank.

Double-breasted dinner jackets need at least two buttons on the front for visual symmetry, and they often need more buttons for improved visual balance, depending on the height of the fastening button.

Roger Moore wearing a button one, show two dinner jacket in A View to a Kill

The notched lapel is sometimes considered inappropriate for black tie because it’s not formal enough or special enough. Many people prefer peaked lapels or a shawl collar. Throughout the long history of the dinner jacket, notched lapels have periodically have been fashionable for dinner jackets. The notched lapel can be said to be inappropriate for a dinner jacket because it’s too ordinary. The notched lapel, when classically proportioned, can be folded up and fastened, so it has that utilitarian origin and thus is less decorative than peaked lapels or the shawl collar.

However, the shawl collar could even be considered less formal than the suit’s standard notched lapels. It’s the most relaxed collar, coming from garments worn inside the house like the smoking jacket and dressing gown. Yet the shawl collar is more decorative than notched lapels.

Sean Connery’s dinner jacket in Thunderball follows tradition with no vents

Dinner jackets traditionally do not have vents, not because of simplicity but because vents were historically typically used on sports jackets or sportier suits. Suits did not commonly have vents until after World War II (though lounge suits have been made with vents since the dawn of the lounge suit). Because the typical suit jacket is now vented, it means that the dinner jacket can also have vents. Double vents are dressier than single vents and are thus more appropriate for dinner jackets.

Dinner jackets lack other details like pocket flaps, hacking pockets, ticket pockets and swelled edges because those are sporty and utilitarian details. They can be used for decoration, which could in theory make them appropriate for dinner jackets, but their utilitarian origins are why dinner jackets do not have them. The special details on a dinner jacket are delicate and decorative rather than function-driven. Hacking pockets, for example, were invented for ease of access on horseback, and flaps were invented to prevent items from falling out of the pockets. These purposes are useless on dinner jackets. Vents were invented for horseback, but they also help the jacket drape neatly when sitting down, so they have a use in a dinner jacket.

The stripe or braid that adorns the outseam of the trousers is a decorative detail used to dress up the seam. It turns a necessary seam into a decorative one.

The trousers do not fasten with a belt because, although belts can be decorative, they are the least refined method of trouser support. They are unnecessarily bulky. The trouser waistband for black tie is traditionally covered with a waistcoat or cummerbund to hide the functional part of the trousers—along with the functional tabs of the braces or the side adjusters—and to decorate it. A belt would leave an unsightly bulge under the waistcoat or cummerbund.

The cummerbund in Skyfall

James Bond frequently does away with waist-coverings, but a good fit with a low button stance on the jacket and a high rise on the trousers can ensure that the waistband stays hidden without the covering as long as the jacket stays closed. Bond usually leaves his jackets closed when seated. Some people like a decorative silk waistband on the trousers to make up for the lack of a waist-covering. While this is not traditional, it follows with other decorative black tie customs.

The dinner suit’s material is traditionally fancier than that of an ordinary lounge suit. While it’s common to find plain-weave worsted wool for dinner suits, the classic material is wool barrathea, which is a worsted fabric with a subtly pebbled look. A post-World War II alternative is a wool-and-mohair cloth, which gives the suit a luxurious sheen. Silk is sometimes used for a fancier look.

Ivory and Velvet Dinner Jackets

Contrasting dinner jackets, such as ivory for warm weather and coloured velvets for cooler weather, follow the same customs as the black and midnight blue dinner jackets but are paired with black or midnight blue trousers.

The only difference is that these jackets traditionally lack silk facings and have self facings (in the same fabric as the rest of the jacket). Today facings are typical for these dinner jackets, but as long as they follow the rest of the black tie customs, the facings are not necessary to identify them as dinner jackets. Dinner suits need silk facings to set them apart from a black suit, but facings on contrasting dinner jackets can add another level of detail that may cause difficulties in pairing accessories.

These non-matching dinner jackets most commonly have a shawl collar—or sometimes peaked lapels—to help identify it as a dinner jacket. Notched lapels are best avoided with these jackets because they can make them look more like sports coats at a glance.

Some people may worry that dinner jacket without facings resembles a sports coat, but if the jacket doesn’t look sporty it won’t be confused. When made of smooth wool, a smooth mohair or silk blend, lustrous silk or velvet, it won’t look sporty enough to look like a sports coat. If it has the proper dinner jacket details, it will look dressy enough to not be confused as a sports coat. Linen was once popular for ivory dinner jackets, but because they usually had shawl collars they always looked like a dinner jacket despite the sportier cloth.

Shirts

The accessories for the dinner jacket also are meant to be decorative. The shirt’s defining feature is its fancy front, either with a marcella bib or a pleated bib. James Bond has often done away with the decorative front, but such shirts are in a fancier fabric to make up for the plain front.

Evening shirts can be made of standard cotton poplin, but often the shirt is made of a fancier or more delicate material. Fancy white-on-white patterns with texture or a satin stripe may be used. Delicate cotton voile is one of the most classic fabrics for evening shirts. And silk is both a fancy and a delicate classic material for evening shirts.

The evening shirt’s collar isn’t special. It started out with the same stiff, stand-up collar that men wore with lounge suits in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. By the 1930s, men started wearing shirts with the soft turn-down collars that they were pairing with their suits. Bond never wears a stand-up or wing collar with his dinner suits, and wearing a turn-down collar like Bond looks more natural and less costume-like today.

Pierce Brosnan wears a marcella dress shirt with studs in Tomorrow Never Dies

Traditionally, the shirt has no visible buttons, hiding the functional parts. The classic front takes decorative studs, and after World War II men started wearing shirts with fly fronts to hide the buttons. However, showing shirt buttons is acceptable too. The buttons should be mother of pearl so they look decorative in addition to functional.

The cuffs are double cuffs with cufflinks, never buttoned barrel cuffs. This is another level of decorative complexity rather than simplicity. Cocktail cuffs, while not traditional, are acceptable as they are fancy cuffs thanks to a purely decorative turnback.

Accessories

The bow tie is the simplest part of the black tie dress code, being solid and needing to match or complement the texture of the lapels. While bow ties are more decorative than they are functional (scarves can be a functional type of neckwear, for example), the simplicity removes a decorative element from the bow tie. Bond occasionally wears diamond-point bow ties, which add a subtle complexity to the bow tie.

Daniel Craig wears a diamond bow tie in Quantum of Solace

The traditional black tie shoes are both simple and decorative. The classic examples are oxfords, pumps and slippers, all in black patent leather. Patent leather is a fancier type of leather than basic calf leather. The classic laces on the oxford are silk ribbon to add a decorative element to a functional part of the shoe. Pumps usually have a decorative silk bow and slippers sometimes have a decorative silk strap. The sole is thin leather and is frequently black leather rather than natural tan leather, so even the sole is decorated.

Shoes for black tie usually have a plain toe, which is the most simple design. Cap toes have historically been acceptable as well, and there’s not reason why they shouldn’t be as they are not a casual style. Brogueing (perforations) are not acceptable for black tie because it is a sporty detail. The same goes for thick soles. Moccasin toes are also unacceptable for their casual nature.

A modern alternative is a plain black calf wholecut, which Daniel Craig’s James Bond has made popular for black tie. While it is not a traditional shoe for black tie, it has an elegant simplicity that works well with a dinner jacket. However, it lacks the traditionally decorative elements that evening shoes are supposed to have.

27 COMMENTS

  1. I find the way that Timothy Dalton folds his Shawl collar scene with Velcro very cool. Did he bring some Velcro along to adjust his lapels?

  2. Can black onyx studs also be used, instead of mother of pearl? I read that they symbolise grief, but I’m not sure why.

  3. I must admit, I really like Brosnan’s tux in Tomorrow Never Dies, there is just something about it that lifts it up out of the ordinary.

  4. Is black tie events a thing where you guys live? I don’t think it is here in Sweden. I haven’t been invited to one since a party in my school thirty years ago. (I think most were wearing mint green or hot pink ties anyway.)

    I’ve worn white tie a number of times though, but I think that’s mostly associated with academia and the Nobel Prize ceremony.

    • They’re few and far between these days on my social calendar. When we lived in Houston we attended a New Year’s Eve party at the Hyatt about four years on the bounce. There seemed to be an ever-decreasing number of black tie wearers year on year, down to around fifteen the last year we attended. When we moved to the Tampa area we attended a James Bond themed New Year’s party a few years ago which far and away had the biggest quotient of black tie wearers of any event I ever attended. There was a broad variance in quality as you may imagine but at least almost everyone got into the spirit of the occasion. The one lad who turned up in jeans and a checked shirt hopefully felt totally out of place!
      I wonder if any readers have been on a cruise and worn black tie? It’s something we’ve thought about but haven’t pulled the trigger yet. One of the attractions for me is an excuse to dust off the tux, if anyone even bothers with that any more.

      • COVID has definitely put a dent in black tie dos – but then it also killed off most large scale social gatherings of any sort for quite a while.

        I have been to one black tie event since COVID and there have been other events that I could have chosen to go to. With the return of more social gatherings in the future, I am not sure black tie is quite dead yet.

        That said, the event I went to – a university reunion – had changed its dress code to be more informal than the last time I was invited: previously it had been white tie or black tie, with medals or decorations!

    • Det är då man ser till att skapa smoking-tillställningar i sin umgängeskrets, jag och några vänner försöker göra vad vi kan på den fronten. Kul att fler svenskar hänger här :)

      And for thoose of you that doesn’t speak och know swedish, here is the translation from above:

      That’s when you and your friends create black tie events on your own. Me and some of my friends try to do our best at that front. Fun to see there are more swedes on this blog :)

    • Yes black tie is fading and I’m afraid that Covid may be hastening it’s demise. While I’m sure there will always be events that require black tie, my only annual event has been cancelled since Covid started and it doesn’t appear it’s coming back. I’m sure I’m not the only one this has happened to. Perhaps at some point the trend towards casual will reverse…

  5. Matt! The real scandal here is that there is no mention of the magnificent tan dinner jacket worn by Roger Moore in The Persuaders. Cyril Castle made, shawl collar, link button cuffs and narrow wrap double breasted. And did I mention it is tan?! But as I’m typing this dressed in a tan safari jacket may be slight biased (and deluded)! ;-)

  6. I go with well-shined wholecut black Oxfords (by Meermin now and eventually for me Crockett & Jones). I cannot justify nor stomach owning a pair of patent leather shoes being as I’m more than 30 years removed from my senior prom.

    • While patent leather is traditional, I think it’s far overrated. A well polished smooth or reverse waxed calf oxford will do so much better, and can be worn for other occasions, not to mention much easier to maintain and repair. Maybe it’s just me, but at heart, I much prefer most of my garments to have some form of utilitarian nature to it.

      • You’re far from alone in disliking patent leather shoes with black tie. I’d say that – in general – in Britian almost nobody does. It is generally it is seen as a little ‘infra dig’ – one of those little social markers that is barely acknowledged but is still there.

        Perhaps the associations of cheap plasticky shoes have killed the wearing of patent leather, but well shined calf skin is almost invariably what people wear (apart from perhaps the one or two people who might have patent leather opera pumps, I suppose).

    • Wolf,

      It’s a refined skill very rarely anyone gets, mirror shining the toe of a pair of calfskin shoes. The distinguishing shine of a well shined pair of calfskin shoes are also something only experienced eyes can tell from those other ordinary calfskin shoes. Besides, it makes for what a man determines – fake plastic or real leather. That which, in and of itself, patent leather used to be real leather.

      It’s a complicated world we are living in, and not even a result of our working.

    • Remember the legendary, iconic introductions of Bond in Dr. No and Goldfinger? Remember how black tie ensemble wasn’t needed, yet he was in his iconic shawl lapel dinner suit outfit, or the tropical ecru dinner coat? I don’t mean you wear it everywhere, every time, at any given chance, but it’s just that, if it felt appropriate, have courage, and just put it on.

      Don’t wait for the occasion. Seize the day – or night.

  7. I personally will never give up wearing my tux nor my off white dinner ensemble even if I have to be the last man standing. It’s wonderful at classical concerts, private evening cocktail parties, at 5 star hotel bars in the great capitals of the world and all sorts of official holidays, on cruises and the like. Dare to set the tone where others fail, it’s empowering.
    On another note, other than Matt’s tutorial on black tie Kirby Allison’s primer on the proper practice of black tie is succinct and highly recommended to view(on YouTube) and supports what Bond has always known and followed. Long live black tie!

    • No, you should not wear black tie attire to a job interview. Most of them take place during the day, which makes the dinner suit inappropriate since it is evening wear. Additionally, they’re likely to think you’re playing some sort of prank on them or, ironically, not taking it seriously. Heck, I was overdressed in a suit and tie my last few interviews.

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