Black ties events are usually for the creme de la creme. You would hardly find a gentleman dressed in casual wear for such a top-rated occasion. Since it would be an opportunity to meet with high-flying individuals, he would do well to put his best foot forward. An area that he would surely not neglect in his dressing. As the saying goes, dressed the way you want to be addressed. The gentleman in his best interest would selective with his black-tie attire if he wants to be taken seriously, who knows he could meet his next business partner or potential investor. The following are the new rules for black-tie dressing:
1. Cover your bases
Fashion experts suggest that the number one thing is that if you’re wearing a waistcoat, then it should cover your trousers. For there is nothing worse than when the trousers are cut too low, and the waistcoat is cut too high, so you end up seeing the band seam or shirt.
2. Don’t always bet on black
There are other colour options to explore. Midnight blue dinner jacket might seem outré in this day and age, but it’s more historically accurate. Plus, it gets darker when the sun goes down. Incase you don’t know, midnight blue will typically look darker and richer.
3. Match your metals
Your black tie-appropriate timepiece isn’t the only hardware that will require some form of blending. The trick is to marry your studs, watch, cufflinks and probably your wedding ring. Fashion experts say you should not mix gold and silver. When you wear black onyx studs edged with silver, wear a watch with a silver case; if you’re wearing mother of pearl studs edged with gold, then you want to wear a watch with a gold case.
4. Play a team game
Stick to your invitation rules. So unless it says ‘black tie creative’ – or ‘Ballon d’Or’ – then withhold the individual flair. Fashion experts say that what makes a dinner suit is the cut and fit. We could not agree more. This comes down to the proportion, the balance and putting together of the complete outfit, getting the perfection in it.
5.Crush it velvet
The smoking jacket favourite is breaking out of the drawing room. As well as being “advantageous for less formal events, and more fun,” as with cocktail attire,it adds to a spectrum of styles that can work in a more formal rig. For example, you can have almost a ‘dress blazer’: button-one fronted with a shawl lapel in a facing of velvet instead of silk.
6.Button your flyway
Some like to show off their waistcoats, but as with any tailored jacket, you should fasten it up unless seated – and just the top button if there are two (which there should be). This custom is also supposedly an invention of the Prince of Wales, albeit an unconscious one.
7. Break the tradition
Fashion has moved on since 1865 and we now live in a world where Ralph Lauren can pair a dinner jacket with jeans and Pharrell can (depending on your point of view) pull off shorts. Arcane-style rules are meant to be broken but time and a place should be considered. Ensure that you are going to that place at that time before you ‘disrupt’ with your fashion game.