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March 9, 2024This post was originally published on this site
Winners and losers, orgies of gratitude, generous lashings of false humility — these are the things we expect from the Oscars. Beyond that, there are truly no certainties but one. There will be tuxedos.
Durable, serviceable, flexible, the tuxedo is a time-tested form of combat gear for night owls, the epitome of uniform dressing and yet, for some reason, a form of suit that gives people the willies. It’s prom drag, they think. Or that ill-fitting rental sack with a stale Mentos in the pocket. Lately, though, the perception of how to wear evening clothes is changing, never more obviously so than on the red carpet, where in a cavalcade of penguin suits, both traditional and innovative, celebrities and their stylists have been giving us a master class in dressing up.
Tuxedos Demystified
Leave the colored tuxedos to experts, said Michael Bastian, the creative director at Brooks Brothers, who shared some foolproof tips for acing evening wear:
1 Novices should probably stick to black or a dark, dark blue we call blavy.
2 Single-breasted is classic and has a peak or shawl lapel.
3 A double vent in back is more old school and formal, but a single vent is fine. A no-vent jacket gets tricky when it hits the hips.
4 The bow tie is black or, once again, blavy, of grosgrain or matte satin. I’m totally fine with pre-tied — even Tom Ford makes one — because the last thing you want to be doing is going on YouTube five minutes before your wedding.
5 Flat-front trousers are fine with a single-breasted jacket. For double-breasted, you need an inverted pleat. More than that and you’re getting into a Playboy Mansion vibe.
6 For formal wear, the rule is 100 percent no cuff. Well, maybe 99.9 percent. And be careful about the break, which should just graze the top of your shoe. Nothing looks worse than trousers puddling around your feet.
7 For shirts, the biggest choice is pleats or bib. The bib should be piqué or some textured fabric so what you see when the coat is buttoned is an expanse of white and a very clean look. With pleats, you can do as many or as few as you want, but I advise a no-iron shirt.
8 The shirt collar should be a regular point or a winged. If winged, the tie goes in front of the point. The cuffs will be French cuffs, worn with links, and the shirt should button with studs.
9 We have to talk watches. Wear a proper dress watch with a black leather or a lizard band. This is not the time for your Apple Watch or your chunky Rolex Submariner.
10 Double-breasted (or variations thereof) feels fresh right now, and for that there is only one choice: a big peak to balance out the jacket’s proportions.
11 Whatever color you choose, the lapel should be grosgrain or satin in the same color. And the trouser stripe should match it.
12 The shoes are plain black, no ornament or low vamp dancing pumps with a grosgrain bow. Smooth black socks are fine.
At the recent Screen Actors Guild Awards, Bradley Cooper, Steven Yeun and Matt Bomer were close to impeccable wearing more or less regulation black tie, while others in the celebrity cohort made a point of showing how truly flexible this sartorial warhorse can be. The tuxedo was tweaked almost to the point of redefinition, with versions of it rendered single- or double-breasted, adorned with crisscross lapels and cropped like a bellhop’s bolero. There were tuxedos that night in bronze, brown, midnight blue, lipstick red, blush pink and, most memorably, ivory, as Jeremy Allen White bid to switch up his thirst-trap underwear-model image for something more suggestive of a leading man.
