Tuxedos and black tie

What black tie actually requires

Most of what looks wrong about a rented dinner jacket is not the fit. It is that the jacket is a business suit with satin added. These are the details that separate the two, and none of them costs more to do correctly when the garment is being cut from scratch anyway.

• A peak lapel or a shawl collar, faced in grosgrain or satin — never a notch
• Covered buttons, one of them, fastened
• Trousers with a braid down the outside seam and no belt loops
• No vent, or a single vent by preference — never the business-suit double
• A waistcoat or cummerbund, because the trouser waistband should not show

Cloth

Barathea is the traditional answer: a tight, matte weave that absorbs light rather than shining under it. Midnight blue is the other, and it is the more interesting one — under artificial light, which is the only light black tie is ever worn in, midnight blue reads blacker than black does.

• Barathea in black or midnight blue, matte and formal
• Mohair blends where the event is outdoors and the evening is hot
• Velvet for a smoking jacket, which is a different garment with its own rules

In this climate the weight question is real: a winter-weight barathea at an outdoor Bangkok reception is a punishment. We will say so before you choose it. More on cloth and construction.

Fit

A dinner jacket is worn for one long evening, usually standing, often with your arms up in photographs. That argues for a chest with real shape in it and an armhole cut high enough to let the arm move without the whole jacket lifting.

• Shoulder ending where yours does — the detail no alteration can fix later
• A high armhole, so raising your arm moves the sleeve and not the body
• Trouser length set for a shoe you will actually wear, not a generic hem

Construction

The lapel is the whole visible argument in black tie, and a lapel holds its roll because of the canvas underneath it rather than because it was pressed that way in a factory. A fused dinner jacket looks flat along the lapel line on the first evening and worse after a dry clean.

The full explanation is underfull canvas, half canvas and fused, and the construction photographs are onbespoke suits.

Fitting rounds

1. Measuring and cloth selection, at your hotel, office or home.
2. A basted fitting, with the jacket half-made, so the pattern can still change.
3. Further fittings as the corrections go in.
4. A final fitting, then delivery to you.

How many fittings your garment needs depends on the garment and on you, and it is agreed at the first appointment rather than promised here.

Timing matters more here than on a lounge suit. Seehow a fitting works, and tell us the date of the event at the first appointment rather than the last.

What it is worn with

The jacket is half the outfit and the rest is where most of the mistakes live. None of this is expensive to get right; it is just rarely explained by the shop selling the jacket.

• A self-tie bow. A pre-tied one is visible from across a room, and the slightly imperfect knot of a real one is the point
• Black shoes with a plain toe — an Oxford or a patent pump, never a brogue, because broguing is a country detail on the most formal thing you own
• A waistcoat or a cummerbund, worn pleats-up, so the trouser waistband never shows between jacket and shirt
• No belt, ever. The trousers are held by side adjusters or braces, which is why they are cut without loops

The dress shirt

A dinner jacket is let down by the wrong shirt more often than by anything else. The collar has to sit correctly under the lapel, and a spread collar cut for business will not. It is worth having both made at once — see tailored shirts.

Questions we are actually asked

Is Bangkok good for tailored suits?

For black tie in particular, yes — provided you ask how the jacket is constructed and how many fittings you get. Both answers tell you more than the price does.

How far ahead do I need to order a dinner jacket?

Further than a lounge suit, because there is less room to correct a mistake: the lapel facing and the trouser braid are decided early and cannot be changed late. Tell us the date of the event and we will say honestly whether it fits.

Peak lapel or shawl collar?

Both are correct. A peak lapel reads sharper and more formal; a shawl collar reads softer and slightly older. The one thing black tie does not permit is a notch lapel, which is a business-suit detail that arrived on dinner jackets through ready-to-wear.

Black or midnight blue?

Midnight blue reads blacker than black under artificial light, which is the light black tie is worn in. Black is never wrong. This is the one decision worth making in daylight with both cloths in front of you.

Can you make the dress shirt too?

Yes, and it is worth doing at the same time so the collar is cut to sit correctly under the jacket lapel. See tailored shirts for how shirts are measured.