FREE online courses on Gentleman Dressing - All you wanted to know about
Dressing like a Gentleman - Formal Evening Clothes
Your full dress is the last thing to economize on. It must be
perfect in fit, cut and material, and this means a first-rate tailor. It must be
made of a dull-faced worsted, either black or night blue, on no account of
broadcloth. Aside from satin facing and collar, which can have lapels or be cut
shawl-shaped, and wide braid on the trousers, it must have no trimming whatever.
Avoid satin or velvet cuffs, neck ribbons and fancy coat buttons.
Wear a plain white linen waistcoat, not one of cream colored
silk, or figured or even black brocade. Have all your linen faultlessly
clean-always-and your tie of plain white lawn, tied so it will not only stay in
place but look as though nothing short of a backward somersault could disarrange
it.
Your handkerchief must be white; gloves (at opera or ball)
white; flower in buttonhole (if any) white. If you are a normal size, you can
buy inexpensive shirts, and white waistcoats that are above reproach, but if you
are abnormally tall or otherwise an “out size” so that everything has to be
“made to order,” you will have to pay anywhere from double to four times as much
for each article you put on.
When you go out on the street, wear an English silk hat, not
one of the taper crowned variety popular in the “movies.” And wear it on your
head, not on the back of your neck. Have your overcoat of plain black or dark
blue material, for you must wear an overcoat with full dress even in summer. Use
a plain white or black and white muffler. Colored ones are impossible. Wear
white buckskin gloves if you can afford them; otherwise gray or khaki doeskin,
and leave them in your overcoat pocket. Your stick should be of plain Malacca or
other wood, with either a crooked or straight handle. The only ornamentation
allowable is a plain silver or gold band, or top; but perfectly plain is best
form.
And lastly, wear patent leather pumps, shoes or ties, and
plain black silk socks.
The Tuxedo, which is the essential evening dress of a
gentleman, is simply the English dinner coat. It was first introduced in this
country at the Tuxedo Club to provide something less formal than the
swallow-tail, and the name has clung ever since. To a man who cannot afford to
get two suits of evening clothes, the Tuxedo is of greater importance. It is
worn every evening and nearly everywhere, whereas the tail coat is necessary
only at balls, formal dinners, and in a box at the opera. Tuxedo clothes are
made of the same materials and differ from full dress ones in only three
particulars: the cut of the coat, the braid on the trousers, and the use of a
black tie instead of a white one. The dinner coat has no tails and is cut like a
sack suit except that it is held closed in front by one button at the waist
line. (A full dress coat, naturally, hangs open.) The lapels are satin faced,
and the collar left in cloth, or if it is shawl-shaped the whole collar is of
satin.
The trousers are identical with full dress ones except that
braid, if used at all, should be narrow. “Cuffed” trousers are not good form,
nor should a dinner coat be double-breasted.
Fancy ties are bad form. Choose a plain black silk or satin
one. Wear a white waistcoat if you can afford the strain on your laundry bill,
otherwise a plain black one. By no means wear a gray one nor a gray tie.
The smartest hat for town wear is an opera, but a straw or
felt which is proper in the country, is not out of place in town. Otherwise, in
the street the accessories are the same as those already given under the
previous heading.
The house suit is an extravagance that may be avoided, and an
“old” Tuxedo suit worn instead.
A gentleman is always supposed to change his clothes for
dinner.
A gentleman is always supposed to change his clothes for
dinner, whether he is going out or dining at home alone or with his family, and
for this latter occasion some inspired person evolved the house, or lounge,
suit, which is simply a dinner coat and trousers cut somewhat looser than
ordinary evening ones, made of an all-silk or silk and wool fabric in some dark
color, and lined with either satin or silk. Nothing more comfortable-or
luxurious-could be devised for sitting in a deep easy-chair after dinner, in a
reclining position that is ruinous to best evening clothes.
Its purpose is really to save wear on evening clothes, and to
avoid some of their discomfort also, because they can not be given hard or
careless usage and long survive. A house suit is distinctly what the name
implies, and is not an appropriate garment to wear out for dinner or to receive
any but intimate guests in at home. The accessories are a pleated shirt, with
turndown stiff collar, and black bow tie, or even an unstarched shirt with
collar attached (white of course). The coat is made with two buttons instead of
one, because no waistcoat is worn with it.
