Mens Tuxedo

What makes a tuxedo a tuxedo

Three details, none of them optional. Satin or grosgrain facing on a shawl or peak lapel. A matching stripe or braid running down the outside of the trouser leg. And, traditionally, no notch lapel — that is a suit detail that has drifted onto cheaper dinner jackets. Take any of the three away and what you have is a dark suit, which is a perfectly good garment but not what a black tie invitation is asking for. Our tuxedo versus suit guide sets the two side by side.

Black or midnight blue

Black is the default and the safest answer at a strict event. Midnight blue is the traditional alternative and, under artificial evening light, often photographs blacker than black does black can flatten and pick up a slight sheen indoors. Both are correct. Choose midnight if you want a little separation from every other jacket in the room, and black if the invitation reads formal in the strictest sense.

Buying the jacket on its own

If you already own formal trousers, or you want a jacket that will work at more than one kind of event, buy the jacket separately. Mens tuxedo jackets covers that, and dinner jackets covers the contrasting-trouser version of the same idea. Velvet tuxedos sit between the two — evening wear that is unmistakably deliberate.