If you’re like most folks (and me) you understand that the members of most symphony orchestras routinely dress in either Black Tie tuxedos or White Tie tailcoats, but you’ve never stopped to wonder why. As large a role as tuxedos and tailcoats play in my everyday life, the fact that I’ve never before questioned this [...]
Much of Mad Men’s success is due to its depiction of late 1950s / early 1960s middle-class lifestyle, a period one writer described as “the last time hip was adult — suits, ties, and tuxedos were hip, and so was the Chivas-Regal-good-life advice of Playboy magazine.” The era’s unique confluence of traditional adult [...]
The tuxedo’s evolution from its 1886 American premiere to its present day incarnation has been a remarkable journey that mirrors the extensive social change that has occurred over the past century and a quarter. Having originated as an informal replacement for the aristocratic Victorian evening tailcoat, the tuxedo jacket was first worn with the tailcoat’s [...]
In October of 1886 New York’s social elite gathered at a brand new exclusive country club called Tuxedo Park for its first annual Autumn Ball. As was the norm for upper-class gentlemen, magnates such as William Waldorf Astor, JP Morgan and Bruce Price (famous architect and father of Emily Post) donned their black tailcoats, starched [...]
Being James Bond Part 2: The 007 Accompaniments By: Peter Marshall, The Black Tie Guy Having established in Part I what kind of tuxedo will make you look like a secret agent instead of a formal waiter, here is your guide to the proper 007 shirt, necktie, waist covering and footwear. Bond’s CIA counterpart [...]
Peter Marshall (aka the Black Tie Guy) is the founder and author of the web’s go-to resource for tuxedo style and etiquette, www.BlackTieGuide.com. He is a rare scholar of all things formal and aims his focus on taking a modern look at formal tradition, where it came from, what it means, and why Black [...]
