Tuxedo
A tuxedo is a particularly elegant suit and part of the evening wear for men . It is also known as a small formal suit in contrast to the tailcoat as a large counterpart . The name is borrowed from English : smoking jacket originally referred to a jacket made of velvet and possibly decorated with braids . The later development of the term is influenced by German and French, it is used in the German and French-speaking countries as well as in Italy. In British English it is called a smoking dinner jacket . In printed invitations, this dress code is indicated with black tie or cravate noire (for the associated black bow tie). In the USA the tuxedo and its modern interpretations are called tuxedo ( tux for short ).
history
The smoking jacket is regarded as the forerunner of tuxedo . The velvet from which this jacket was made originally had strong, dark shades such as wine red, fir green or a deep dark blue. This tuxedo jacket was put on instead of the tailcoat jacket when you went to smoke in the smoking room after dinner , to drink a digestif or to play cards . Since the smell of smoke was perceived as unacceptable to the women, a change of at least the jacket was essential. At the same time, putting on the tuxedo jacket meant that the official part of the evening was over when the men withdrew.
Another variant is made of silk and decorated with stitching. It also has strong colors, a shawl collar and is closed either with a cord by tying it together or with toggle buttons. It is still used as a house jacket to this day.
The origin of the tuxedo in its current form cannot be dated with certainty. Presumably in the middle of the 19th century people occasionally switched to having the smoking jacket made of black fabric so that they could also be worn for informal meals - the dinner jacket was born. It is undisputed that the future Edward VII , then as Albert Eduard Prince of Wales , had a preference for elegant and comfortable clothing. He was therefore grateful for such an alternative to tailcoats and had such a dinner jacket made for him by the English tailor Henry Poole . He made this item of clothing socially acceptable for informal occasions. This first dinner jacket therefore had a shawl collar.
The dinner jacket probably came to America through James Brown-Potter, who visited Edward VII in the spring of 1886. He took it with him from England and showed himself with it for the first time in the Tuxedo Club, an exclusive private club , in the autumn of 1886. The other members of the club were so impressed by his demeanor that they had a jacket made for them and it was accepted into American society. That is why the dinner jacket became known in America as the tuxedo .
Until the early 1920s, the tuxedo was only worn at private parties (e.g. private dinners, men's club visits). The tailcoat remained the only appropriate item of clothing for formal evening events. Only then did the tuxedo become more and more important, until it began to replace the tailcoat on most occasions in the late 1930s.
Dress code
Tuxedo jacket
A classic tuxedo jacket consists of a single-row or double-row jacket without a back vent. The color is black or midnight blue. The classic single-breasted tuxedo jacket has only one button, and can be closed with a buttonhole or with a chain fastener (two buttons and two buttonholes). The lapel is covered with silk satin or ribbed silk (reps silk), the silk mirror. It can be designed as a rising pointed lapel or as a scarf shape. The jacket pockets are designed as piped pockets (without flap). The buttons (closing buttons and sleeve buttons) are made of the same material as the lapel.
In southern countries, on boat trips and for outdoor events, a white or ivory dinner jacket can be worn instead of a black jacket .
Tuxedo pants
With a tuxedo jacket, you wear cuff trousers with a simple galon . The trousers are made in the same fabric as the jacket and the galon in the same fabric as the silk mirror of the lapel, with the exception of the white dinner jacket, here the trousers are black.
The lower edge is slightly sloping back to the heel. The pants are a few millimeters longer at the back. The waistband is covered by the vest or cummerbund and is therefore at the level of the navel. The tuxedo pants have no belt loops. Instead, the pants are held in place by suspenders buttoned on the inside of the waistband . These are made of black or white silk with soft, sewn flaps. As an alternative, tailored men can wear pants without suspenders. The waist size is adjustable with the help of buttons or buckles on the side.
Dress shirt
A man's shirt in white or light ecru is worn with a tuxedo . It is characterized by French cuffs with straight corners. The collar is usually designed as a turn-down collar, but traditional wing collars are also possible.
There are no buttons sewn on the cuffs, as is often the case on the upper part of the chest bar. These are closed with separate cuff and tailcoat buttons . The breast strip is the part that is visible under the jacket and has two to three buttons.
The buttons are also offered together as a set and are designed to match each other. The most common types are set with so-called cabochons (round or oval cut gemstones), often garnets or onyxes , which, due to their black color, go very well with a tuxedo. More modern shirts also have a concealed placket ( English fly front ). There is a panel of fabric over the button placket and the shirt is equipped with sewn-on chest buttons throughout.
The shirt front can be completely smooth, longitudinally or transversely pleated ( pleating ), with tucks or ruffles be filled. A shirt front made of starched cotton piqué is also possible.
accessories
A black bow is traditionally worn with a tuxedo . More recently, a simple black tie (without a pattern) has been combined as an alternative to a tuxedo . When wearing formal clothing, the waistband is always covered. A low-cut single-breasted or double-breasted black vest in the same material as pants and jacket is often worn with the classic single-breasted tuxedo. The less formal cummerbund made of black silk satin has also been widespread since the 1930s. Neither a waistcoat nor a cummerbund are worn with a double-breasted tuxedo jacket, as the jacket is always closed.
A pocket handkerchief made of linen or cotton in the same color as the shirt is the usual pochette .
Wearing a watch is sometimes found to be inappropriate. That is why a design that is as classic as possible should be chosen. A plain silver with a black leather strap is ideal. A pocket watch can also be put in the vest pocket.
While it is now common in continental Europe, following the British model, to wear a tuxedo medal (especially as a ribbon miniature or miniature medal clasp ) on the upper left side of the chest, this was previously mostly reserved for tails or official representative clothing. In the photo above, the Duke of Edinburgh can be seen in the middle in a tuxedo with miniature clasp, neck medal and star of the Order of the Garter.
Shoes, stockings
Black loafers with thin leather soles are worn with a tuxedo: either traditional opera pumps (patent leather slip-on shoes with a wide grosgrain bow over the instep), or lace-up shoes that are either polished to a high gloss or have a patent leather shaft. In this case, the shaft cut is that of a smooth Oxford (Plain Oxford: no patterns, few and inconspicuous seams, closed lacing). Black, knee-length silk stockings are combined with the shoes. As far as these - traditionally - do not have an elastic waistband, they have to be held by suspenders .
The tuxedo for women
As early as the 1920s, for example, the actress Marlene Dietrich - with her, at the time, extravagant predilection for women for trouser suits - had tuxedos tailored to the body by a man's tailor . As a standard item of clothing, however, the tuxedo was reserved exclusively for men until the 1960s.
In 1962, the French actress Catherine Deneuve was the first woman to wear a haute couture tuxedo designed for women by the French fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent . Saint-Laurent included the tuxedo for women, which he called Le Smoking , in his Rive Gauche ready-to-wear collection for the 1966 season in 1965 and from then on offered it in numerous variations. Saint-Laurent's tuxedo for women was a fashionable symbol of the second wave of the women's movement and thus the emancipation of women in the 1960s. For Barbara Vinken , Le Smoking is the most striking takeover of men's fashion into women's fashion, "in which this sex appeal of the masculine in the feminine is particularly evident". To this day, Yves Saint-Laurent's collections offer contemporary versions of Le Smoking for women.
literature
- Hardy Amies: Suit and Gentleman. Of the fine English way of dressing . Lit, Münster 1997, ISBN 3-8258-3456-5 .
- Alan Flusser: Dressing the man. Mastering the art of permanent fashion . HarperCollins, New York 2002, ISBN 0-06-019144-9 .
Web links
Footnotes
- ^ Friedrich Kluge: Etymological dictionary of the German language. 24th edition. de Gruyter, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-11-017473-1 .
- ↑ Order bearers on receipt. In: Der Tagesspiegel . June 28, 2012.
- ↑ The tuxedo. In: FAZ .
- ^ Farewell: Adieu Yves Saint-Lauren. welt.de June 5, 2008.
- ↑ In a tuxedo the woman becomes the focus. In: The world . April 29, 2014.
- ↑ The world of Yves Saint-Laurent. In: The time. March 10, 2010.
- ^ Yves Saint-Laurent and the ladies' tuxedo. In: arte.tv March 12, 2010. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: arte.tv )
- ↑ He gave power to women. In: The time. June 11, 2008.
- ↑ The Black Prince of Elegance. Interview with the cultural scientist Barbara Vinken. Deutschlandfunk, June 2, 2008.
- ↑ Why not? In: Spiegel Online. January 25, 2010.
- ↑ Stefano Pilati: The Italian Dandy. In: The press. August 19, 2008.