Does The Groom Wear A White Tie?

On the day of my wedding to my future wife, I’m going to wear full morning dress to the ceremony and classic white tie to the reception. Having first heard of this idea from the famed Black Tie Guide, and having had the thought cemented in my mind by the wedding ensembles of the great Sven Raphael Schneider himself, I’m never going to look back on this idea. You guys are the best!

There are nearly 100 annual balls in Vienna during the ball season (the Opera Ball might be the most famous one internationally but it is actually one of the less elegant ones).\r When I was a young guy in the 90s, I was lucky to open dozens of balls under the choreographies of my dancing school and I also visited plenty of them as a regular guest. \r At most of them I used to wear my own (thanks to my parents (RIP) for buying it for me!) white tie ensemble, which I was extremely fond and proud of.\r I haven’t been to a ball for a long time now but kept wearing my tails at least on every New Year’s Eve since then, until my waistband… \r began to… \r shrink, I guess… 😁😁😁.\r Anyways, a well tailored tailcoat is clearly something really special to wear – in the best sense of the word.\r Danke für das schöne article und meine besten Grüße aus Wien!

THE BUTTONS HAVE A STRUCTURAL PURPOSE at each button point you have 4 pieces of cloth joining – you also have the tails meeting giving you the weakest part of the coat where it might split. SO you can sew the 4 holes of the button through each of the 4 pieces of cloth to bind them together and on the inside have a piece of tape holding the left and right halves of the coat together to prevent ripping the back seam.

To say the truth, I wear my tails more often then I do my tuxedos. In all fairness, classic mens style these days is so blurred that whether you’re in a set of tails or dinner jacket, people are just going to call it a “tux” so it really doesn’t matter which one you wear. Whichever you like the best between white tie and black tie at that given moment is what you wear. The beauty of both outfits is that they are so simple when executed correctly that they end up complimenting each other. So one of my closest friends wore his midnight blue tuxedo out to a party, and I wore my tails, and with our dates, we all looked classy together. People in general loved them look, and by far, we were the best dressed people there, as most were in some business suit variant. We were out on the dance floor, having fun, but I noticed a mural acquaintance of ours. Regrettably the guy showed up in black jeans and a white polyester short sleeve “dress” shirt, and you could tell, he looked and felt out of place. So after a break I went up and chatted with him. Turns out he wanted to learn how to dress better, but didn’t know where to begin. So he tentatively asked “where did you get your suit?” And from there, I was able to direct him to the Gazette, RMRS and a few other resources. His style game has improved dramatically. No more polyester for him — I just saw him in his first tuxedo the other week. The man could be James Bond now.

Even in our society where individuality is apparently so crucial, people will still look at you strangely if you, for example goes with a hat. Therefore, I am afraid that we have gotten to a place in our society where people will look down on us, who want to endure the classic meanswear style …. I feel it especially here in Denmark, where I have been accosted several times because people think I dressed too nicely. But of course that’s not enough to stop me from wearing the cloth I want!

Great article, would love to get dressed to the nines. You had many strong points why men stopped wearing formal. But, you left out a very strong point why this is occured. Basically the way that I look at it is that society degraded immensely since the 30’s and 40’s. What once was right and good is now wrong and bad, what is wrong is now good. This decline in humanity has been happening since I’ve been alive, born in the early 60’s. Noticed a really downward spirial really happening in the last 30 years. There are only a hand full of us guys that refuse to give in to todays standards and im one of them. I really enjoy your articles and think they are very informative about mens clothing. I got the opportunity to wear a full white tie and tails outfit at the 2020 new years party in Tampa where it was mandatory that a man would wear some form of a tux, was a night i’ll never forget. Keep making these great article’s, I think they are great entainment.

In Sweden’s University cities like Uppsala and Lund white tie still lives on in formal occasions related to the universities, such as academic balls (and I think it’s similar in Finland), meaning young people are actually the ones who wear white tie predominantly here. It also stays a bit in the public consciousness with the help of the Nobel banquet every year. Over here you would however never see anyone with pumps (only laquered shoes/patent leather), it’s very very rare with detachable collars, and I’ve never seen a top hat either, maybe because the events I’ve been to are related to academia and we have special student-hats instead. Also I think it’s most common with single stripe here on the trousers, and vests are almost universally single-breasted. Though there are some understandable reasons as to why white tie has been eschewed for other more casual wear, I feel it’s a bit sad if it was wholly replaced with black tie or even more casual wear completely. As it stands now the retention of white tie evening wear in academia is becoming a Swedish (scandinavian?) tradition, and it’d be sad to see it go. Would love for it to be more common, even outside of university related occasions, but sadly proper events for it hardly exists, balls and galas are just not a thing in these modern days. But I do get to wear white tie from time to time. I usually attend the spring ball at Uppsala Castle every Walpurgis night. It’s a ball arranged by the choir Allmänna Sången every year. It consists of a three course formal dinner, accompanied with singing from the choir and singing from the attending guests as well, which is then followed by dancing to live a band, which mostly plays swing music, late into the night.

Because as you briefly mentioned the world has become very casual noways just my honest opinion although perhaps in certain areas it may of course be different. Sadly I never get the chance anymore to wear my Dark striped suit that still sits in my closet but I have purchased a few casual blazers for informal occasions which will highly likely get more use. Anyway thanks for the article as always!

Uppsala, Sweden in 2022 has meant that some academic and institutional celebrations underwent in close succession and this last weekend wore a white tie (evening) ensemble to a ball in the castle. It seems an artifact, as evening white tie is more frequent and appropriate than black tie in our setting. Still have 3 events left in this calendar year that have White tie frack dresscode!

I just purchased my first tuxedo last year. I used an office party at a hotel as an excuse to purchase it. Here in Nicaragua, Central America, it’s really rare for men to wear these kind of clothes; usually tuxes get reserved only for weddings of mid to high social class people. Nowadays I’m looking for any and all opportunities to wear it, I wore it at a New Year’s Eve party and for Valentine’s Dinner. Now I’m thinking about getting a white tie ensemble for my wedding any time in the future (maybe in the next 2 years?).

You mention how white tie dress can make one look like an orchestra conductor. Actually, orchestral musicians traditionally alternate between black tie and white dress codes, depending on the importance of the occasion — and that’s for all the players, not just the conductor. When I once had to substitute for the orchestra’s organist in a performance of Händel’s _Messiah_, the regular organist let me in on his secret: since he was seated at the back of the orchestra with his back to the rear stage wall, he figured that the audience couldn’t see the back of his coat; so he wore his regular non-tailed tuxedo with white tie and waistcoat! This led me to do the same — yes, uncouth, but again, who was to know? My fellow musicians certainly had no problem with it, as we all see these quite pragmatically as work clothes. But I’m reforming, now planning to complete my white tie ensemble with a proper tailcoat. And today, my vintage silk top hat (F. R. Tripler & Co.) arrived from eBay. It’s a curiosity in terms of the class distinction that white and black tie used to signify, because orchestral musicians are hardly of aristocratic class. And while some noted conductors may earn salaries that can elevate them to some higher status, there are those who often eschew traditional formal dress, preferring to wear something more like an artist’s smock (probably because they sweat profusely).

Too bad white tie is out of fashion and so uncommon. Would love to have an excuse to have a white tie outfit. I have a 1930’s vintage silk plush topper that would be perfect for it. My last black tie event earlier this year was a 20’s themed fund raiser gala, most who wore evening wear were in some version of black tie (about half done poorly) but there was one gentleman in a “version” of white tie and it did look bad when done incorrectly. He was wearing a turn down collar, I think tie may have been pre-tied variety too. I don’t recall all the details but it was sad as it could have been a win with some effort.

There is this perception that white tie and even black tie were quite common in the past. They weren’t. You had to be a royal, aristocrat, industrialist or some other type of successful businessman to pretty much afford white tie. Basically less than 1% of the population could afford white tie. Also, besides the “lounge suit”, which is what we call a business suit today, which was considered quite informal or casual there were no alternatives until the black tie code was developed. So if the rich wanted a bit more of a casual party they could only go for the “lounge suit” or just stick to the white tie dress. In time they started modifying the white tie suit, getting more comfortable shirts and coats and waistcoats until they developed what we call today black tie for more casual events. After that some organisers started choosing black tie for their events because it would allow the participants to enjoy themselves more….and more people could afford it. Basically it was more inclusive.

note white tie jackets the right size is now getting harder to find on ebay i put alot on all over finds a suit jacket very hard i have all ways had hand me down tails did have one set of new the jacket now to small for me note if you are going to get white tie make there space from you putting on kg’s i have had 3 lots of white tie jackets a ex hire jacket and pants fit’s great there’s a little space just in case note beware i was told by mum that there was never need to worry about wearing a morning suit she was not right the inlaws put us in morning suits i said no and put white tie on far to hot on the day for morning suits morning suits are not right for time in the day if somebody you know check the class out of the one’s wedding it is first it better to hire out suits my word they did not fit right i was the only one with a good fit

In Australia, no one wears white tie – it largely fell out of a favour during the 80’s with the Labor government. The only time you’ll see an Australian public official in white tie is if they’re in the UK/Europe meeting a monarch or attending a gala. The exception to this are the Freemasons. For reasons largely historical and traditional, the Freemasons continue to wear white tie to their major Lodge functions. It is falling more and more out a favour as the full white tie ensemble is becoming increasingly difficult to acquire, and is prohibitively expensive to buy new in Aus. The white vest fell out of favour 20 years ago, and has been replaced by the cummerbund – same with the wing collar. If a delegation comes from Europe to Australia, they wear immaculate white tie and are keen to point out that we are wearing it wrong!

White Tie is the most formal dress code that a gentleman can wear in the Western hemisphere, and it comes with its own sets of rules and regulations. For footwear, patent leather opera pumps are the only acceptable option, and your hosiery must be made of a sheer black silk. The only appropriate headwear for a White Tie ensemble is a black silk top hat, which can be paired with an evening overcoat (with lapels faced in silk and silk-covered buttons), a white silk scarf and white kid gloves in the winter. The bow tie (made out of a white Marcella cotton) that goes with the White Tie ensemble must never be pre-tied, always one that you can tie yourself and sized to fit your neck perfectly. As for the White Tie dress shirt, it must have a Marcella bib front with a high-standing, detachable wing collar (fastened with (mother-of-pearl) collar studs). The shirt has single cuffs that are fastened with cufflinks and the bib accommodates 1-3 studs (depending on the wearer’s height). Normally the cufflinks, shirt studs, (collar studs), and waistcoat buttons come as a set and are made out of mother-of-pearl. The pants have a double galon (braided or silk) down the sides and are high-waisted so as to be worn with suspenders (which are usually made of a white silk). The tailcoat is black, must be tailored to fit the body perfectly, has 6 decorative silk-covered buttons on the placket (three on each side), peaked lapels that are faced in silk, does not button in the front and is paired with a low-cut white Marcella waistcoat, fastened with exchangeable mother-of-pearl waistcoat buttons.