Tuxedo Day

What the day is

Tuxedo Day is observed on October 10. The tuxedo, called a dinner jacket outside North America, is the standard of formal evening dress short of white tie.

Origin and background

The name comes from Tuxedo Park, a private residential enclave built north of New York City for wealthy families in the 1880s. The garment appeared at its autumn ball in 1886, worn by young men who had adopted a short tailless jacket in place of the full evening tailcoat that formal dress then required. The look was noticed, the name stuck in America, and the style spread.

Its actual design origin is English. The short smoking jacket had been developed as informal evening wear for country houses, associated with the Prince of Wales and his tailors, and American visitors brought the idea home. What Tuxedo Park supplied was the name and the publicity.

The conventions that followed are more specific than most people realize. Black tie means a dinner jacket with satin or grosgrain facings on the lapels, matching braid down the trouser leg, no belt, a bow tie that is actually tied, and either a waistcoat or a cummerbund to cover the waist. Black shoes, polished. The silk facings exist because they do not show sheen unevenly in candlelight, which is what the outfit was designed for.

The rules have loosened considerably, and the midnight blue version, which reads blacker than black under artificial light, has returned to favor.

How to take part

• Learn to tie a real bow tie. It takes twenty minutes and the slight asymmetry is the entire point.
• Get the shoulders right if you are buying. Everything else can be altered; shoulders effectively cannot.
• Cover the waist with a cummerbund or waistcoat, pleats facing up.
• Hire rather than buy if you wear one twice a decade, and have the hire altered anyway.
• Steam rather than iron the jacket, and hang it on a proper wooden hanger.