The Practical Guide to Black Tie for Men

Black tie is the dress code most invitations now request and the one most often diluted in modern usage. It is also the dress code with the most settled rules — settled, in fact, since roughly the 1930s, when the elements that define it today were already in place. The misunderstanding is not that the rules are unclear. It is that "black tie" has slowly come to mean, in casual usage, "fancy suit", and a guest dressed for a fancy suit at a black tie ball will read as having brought the wrong invitation.

What follows describes what black tie actually consists of, where the room allows latitude, and where it does not. None of it is difficult. Most of it can be assembled, off the rack, for the cost of a midrange suit, and a well-fitted tuxedo bought once will serve a guest for decades.

What black tie is

Black tie is the second most formal evening dress code, sitting just below white tie. It descends from the smoking jacket of the late nineteenth century, which was adopted as informal evening wear at country houses and gradually replaced the tailcoat for all but the most formal city occasions. By the 1930s, the elements were standardized: a black or midnight-blue dinner jacket with silk lapels, matching trousers with a silk stripe, a white dress shirt, a black silk bow tie, a black waist covering, and patent leather shoes. The same list would serve at any black tie ball on the Manhattan calendar tonight.

The dinner jacket

A dinner jacket is not a suit jacket. The cloth is finer — typically a barathea or fine worsted in black or midnight blue — and the lapels are faced in silk, either grosgrain or satin. The choice of facing should be carried through the rest of the outfit; a satin lapel asks for a satin bow tie, grosgrain for grosgrain. Either is correct so long as the elements agree.

Lapel shape comes in two correct forms. A peak lapel is the more traditional and the more formal of the two. A shawl lapel is the slightly older shape, slightly softer in line, and entirely correct. A notch lapel — the standard business-suit lapel with a small triangular cut — is a hybrid form that crept onto rented tuxedos in the twentieth century and has never been considered properly correct for evening wear. At a serious ball, peak or shawl is the right answer.

Most modern dinner jackets are single-breasted with one button. Double-breasted dinner jackets, with a typical six-on-two button arrangement, are equally correct and carry a quiet advantage: the buttoned closure makes a separate waist covering unnecessary. A double-breasted jacket is worn closed throughout the evening except when seated.

Midnight blue deserves a note. Under the tungsten light of a hotel ballroom, midnight blue reads blacker than black does — black absorbs warm light and dulls; midnight blue holds its depth. Many of the older tailors recommended it for exactly this reason. It is correct and slightly less common, which makes it a particularly good choice for a guest building a tuxedo to last.

The trousers

Tuxedo trousers are cut from the same cloth as the jacket and run a single line of silk braid — matching the lapel facing — down the outside of each leg. They are worn with suspenders rather than a belt; the high rise that the cut requires is incompatible with belt loops, and the silhouette is wrong with a belt in any case. Cuffs are not used. The break at the shoe should be slight.

The shirt

A black tie dress shirt is white, with a turn-down collar and either a pleated front or a piqué bib. The pleated front is the more common today and is correct. The piqué bib — a stiffened panel of waffle-textured cotton, sometimes called marcella — is the more traditional, and although it is the standard for white tie, it is equally correct at black tie and lends additional formality.

Cuffs are French (double) and closed with cuff links. Studs replace the front buttons on a piqué or fly-front shirt; a pleated shirt with self-buttons is also correct. Wing collars, despite their popularity at proms and on rental racks, belong with white tie. At black tie, the turn-down collar is the standard.

The bow tie

Black silk, self-tied. The hand-tied knot is slightly imperfect and slightly off-center, which is the visual signature that distinguishes a man who tied his own bow tie from a man who clipped one on. Pre-tied ties are correct in the sense that no one will refuse you entry, but they read as exactly what they are. The skill takes ten minutes to learn from a video and a quiet weekend afternoon to make habitual.

The width of the tie should match the lapel. A wider lapel asks for a wider tie; a narrow modern lapel takes a narrower one. Color is black, full stop. Burgundy, navy, and printed bow ties belong to other dress codes — there is no version of black tie that asks for a colored or patterned tie.

The waist covering

A single-breasted dinner jacket requires a waist covering. The two correct options are a cummerbund, in matching black silk, worn with the pleats opening upward; or a low-cut formal waistcoat, in black silk or barathea, designed to be visible only at the lapel opening. One or the other, never both, never neither.

A double-breasted jacket needs no waist covering, since the closure of the jacket itself covers the waistband. This is part of what makes double-breasted the easier shape to get right.

The shoes

Patent leather oxfords or court pumps. The pump — a slip-on with a flat grosgrain bow — is the more traditional shape and is what you will see at the more formal evenings. The patent oxford is the more practical choice and is entirely correct. Either should be paired with over-the-calf black silk or fine wool socks; a flash of bare ankle when seated is the kind of small failure the room notices.

Studs, links, and the small details

Studs and cuff links should match each other and should be modest. Black onyx set in gold or platinum is the most popular and most iconic pairing for black tie — the shape the dress code calls to mind. It is not, however, the only correct choice. Mother-of-pearl, more traditionally the standard for white tie, appears at black tie evenings without remark; plain polished gold, silver, or platinum is equally appropriate; and dark semi-precious stones such as hematite occasionally stand in for onyx. Diamonds are correct but optional, and obvious diamonds — large, conspicuous — are a quiet error. The point of formal dress is that the pageantry comes from the form, not from the jewelry.

A pocket square is optional but adds little weight to the outfit. A plain white linen square, folded flat at the pocket or arranged in a relaxed puff, is the classic choice. Patterned or colored squares belong to less formal dress.

A boutonnière is occasional rather than required. A single red carnation, fresh, is the historical choice. At a heritage ball or a debutante presentation, the host may provide them at the entry.

Common errors

A handful of misunderstandings appear with enough regularity to be worth naming. A long four-in-hand necktie is not black tie under any circumstances. A printed or patterned vest is not black tie. A black business suit, however well cut, is not black tie. Brown shoes are not black tie. A wing collar at black tie is a mismatch. A colored bow tie, even a tasteful navy or burgundy, is not black tie. None of these will get you turned away from a ball, but each will signal that the dress code was treated as an opening offer rather than a requirement.

One quiet rule

A well-fitted dinner jacket — properly tailored at the shoulder and the waist, with sleeves that show a quarter inch of cuff — is the single element that makes the rest of the outfit work. The most expensive tuxedo in the room reads as a costume if the shoulder seam sits an inch off the collarbone; a moderately priced jacket cut to the body of the man wearing it reads as correct. Of all the small choices a guest can make, paying for a proper alteration is the one that returns the most. The form is generous; it asks only that the clothes fit.

If this is your first ball, our orientation guide covers the rest of the evening.