It is commonly worn with a formal shirt, shoes & other clothing accessories such as cuff-links & a black tie. In the most traditional sense, it is worn in the form prescribed by the black-tie dress-code.
Many etiquette, clothing & sartorial pundits have insisted for the last century that the term ‘tuxedo' is less correct than ‘dinner jacket'. However, the first written reference to the tuxedo predates dinner jacket by some two years; tuxedo first appeared in 1889 while dinner jacket is dated to 1891. Contrarily, the Prince of Wales had apparently ordered a ‘tailless dinner jacket' from his tailors in 1885.
Today, the terms are variously used in different parts of the world. Tuxedo as a term is most often encountered in North America, where it originated. It was here where it came to be associated with Tuxedo Park. This was a planned-resort community developed as a hunting-club in the Ramapo Mountains near New York City. In French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian & other European languages, the tuxedo is referred to as the smoking jacket. In French the shawl-collared version is known as le smoking Deauville. The peaked-lapel version however, is known as le smoking sentirent. In many places it has earned the nickname of penguin suit, owing to its black & white colour-combination. In the US, it is often called the monkey suit. This is a reference to street musicians who had an accompanying chimpanzee as part of their act, in which the chimp would be kitted-out in a mini tuxedo.
As far back as the 1860s, the increasing popularity of outdoor pursuits among the British middle & upper classes led to a corresponding increase in the popularity of the lounge suit. This became a country alternative to the more starchy, formal day-wear traditionally worn by men-about-town. Men also sought an alternative to the stiffly formal tailcoat worn in the evening at society functions. For some country squires, the solution was to adopt the casual velvet smoking jacket by having it made from the same fabric as the evening tailcoat. This made it more acceptable for more informal home-dining.
A turning-point in the respectability of wearing tailless jackets as a part of evening-dress came with the adoption of the style by the UK Prince of Wales (later to become King Edward VII). The Prince's tailors, Henry Poole & Co of Savile Row, have an undated receipt for a blue silk smoking jacket ordered by the future monarch to wear to informal dinner-parties. They have variously claimed dates of 1860 & 1865 for this receipt.
One version of the style's introduction to the US also concerns the British prince. At the time, the largest firm in the business of facilitating credit-transfers between the US & the UK was Brown Bros. & Co., headed in London by Howard Potter. He was the son-in-law of the company founder James Brown. Among the London-partners was his son James Brown Potter, who was based in New York. James Brown Potter had been invited by the Prince of Wales to visit his hunting estate in 1886. Unsure as to the dress code, he asked the Prince for guidance & was directed to Poole & Co. to obtain the new style of jacket. Potter later took the suit with him on a visit to Tuxedo Park, a newly-established residential country-club for New York's elite. The suit proved so popular that many club members copied the look. The tuxedo was thus born; becoming the club's informal dining uniform.
Sources dating to the 1930s state that the coat style was introduced to Tuxedo Park in 1886 by Griswold Lorillard, an heir to a tobacco fortune, at the club's Autumn Ball. The sources cite an article in the society newspaper Town Topics, which described Lorillard arriving "in a tailless dress-coat & waistcoat of scarlet satin, looking for all the world like a royal foot-man". The Canadian blogger Peter Marshall has speculated that the Town Topics article has been misinterpreted & that the dress-coat mentioned was a period reference to the evening tailcoat. He suggests that Lorillard's coat would have resembled a mess jacket rather than a tuxedo.
The most reliable account can be heard from Grenville Krane, one of the original founders of Tuxedo Park. He explained how the club's members began to wear the jacket in public whenever they dined in New York. Curious onlookers, amused by this new look among the well-heeled clientele of the city's top restaurants, came to associate the jacket with the famous Tuxedo Park Country Club.
By the turn of the 20th century the tuxedo was typically a one-button, single-breasted model with no vents. Trousers matched the jacket, most commonly black. In the UK, Edwardian balls often opted for Oxford-gray or Prussian-blue. By 1914, the gray option had fallen out of fashion in favour of Prussian blue. This was accompanied by the addition of a single stripe of braid covering the outseam of each trouser-leg. It became standard by the 1930s. The tuxedo was also being created as a double-breasted design by this time.
Today, the most popular uses of the tuxedo are for functions such as formal weddings, proms & nights on cruise-liners. Some musicians, masters-of-ceremony, celebrities speaking at Sports Dinners & comperes will often adopt the tuxedo as an item of formal dress clothing. It is also a popular choice for fancy dress, even as a
tuxedo t shirt design. The main difference nowadays is that the tuxedo-style & its various accessories are increasingly chosen by the individual wearer rather than dictated by any societal dress-code.
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I run an online clothing business. We have many
fancy dress t shirt designs available. These range from halloween and stag party themes to St. Patricks day and 1980s fancy dress.
