Creative Black Tie. Satin lapel or matching lapel on tuxedo?
Have a wedding coming up that calls for “Creative Black Tie” and I want to wear something formal but still be a little peacockish to fit the vibe.
I’ve been seeing a few jackets that look like a tuxedo (shawl/peaked collar, single button) but are not with the traditional satin lapel.
Example: https://theblacktux.com/collection/tuxedos/green-velvet-jacket-tuxedo/buy
Is that still considered a tuxedo? Would I be better off going for something slightly more traditional like this?
Example: https://suitsupply.com/en-us/men/jackets/burgundy-lazio-dinner-jacket/C6501.html
Any advice on other styles/inspo that could fit the creative black tie look?
Thanks for the help!
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8 Replies
What kind of weather will you be dealing with?
Anywhere from mid 70s to mid 60s. It’s an early September wedding in the mountains.
Velvet is more for winter/cool months. It would be really hot.
Honestly great point and something I hadn’t really considered. I feel like velvet styles have drawn me in more than others but maybe I need to keep looking for other options
Alright, there were a few questions here.
First, the lapel. Okay, so, classic lapel on a black or midnight blue jacket is silk faced. However, for pretty much every other kind of dinner jacket, silk faced is either optional or usually not done. Velvet jackets are often (usually?) self-faced, or faced in black velvet - black silk is entirely optional.
"Self faced" means that the lapel has the same facing as the rest of the jacket / is faced with the same material. It's kind of a silly name I think because really it means it's not "faced" as much as it's just made like a lapel for anything else.
Velvet is fine as long as it's not hot. For mid 60s I wouldn't hesitate. For mid 70s it might be warm. But then, is this black tie being done in the 'proper' time of day, ie, starting no earlier than the early evening? Temperatures will be cooler and will cool off more into the night, in most cases.
(But again, mid 60s in high humidity and direct sunlight isn't fun, especially if you just sit there for two hours. I made that mistake recently, low 60s so I had a tweed jacket... sigh)
Back to the main topic at hand. Creative black tie is an interesting dress code... so, you could always just go traditional black tie and shrug. What is or is not creative, really? People who wear black tie all the time seem to end up treating it as a rote uniform or they start bending 'rules' and finding neat historical contexts and so on.
The most obvious black tie is: black or midnight blue, peaks or shawls with silk facing, black bowtie, white shirt, black shoes, links and studs. Right?
But then let's expand a bit. Ivory is a classic dinner jacket. Nobody can really argue with that. And of course the standard colors can be done double breasted too. Then, we have velvet, which is usually done either in the form of a classic black/midnight dinner jacket except it's velvet, or it's done as a smoking jacket, or something in between. Velvet colors start with black, go through the standard dark colors of navy, bottle green, purple, charcoal, etc, and then if you keep going, end up into the complete and full spectrum, with lighter blues and greens and purples and then into ochres and tan/beiges and so on. And they may get frogging and other decoration.
Then if you keep going, you start getting into historical things. Like dove and sand, for example. Or, as another example, blackwatch tartan (and in this case, the lapel facing is usually cut at a 45 degree angle). Or you get into modern-trendy stuff and look at navy rather than midnight, for example. Or you go full peacock (or full Ken?), with a literal peacock-print shawl on a pale pink jacket. Eventually you find that you can pull off pretty much any color as long as it is cut like a proper dinner jacket, if you have the knowledge to do it right and confidence to carry it well... though many of the trendy pieces aren't cut properly.
Bro spitting.
So then the question becomes, if you can pull just about all of that off at a 'less formal more party' black tie event, where's the line for creative? I dunno. Unless you're paying a designer to make something crazy for your red carpet show, I got no idea where the line is tbh
So if I were to give you actionable advice, I'd say, as long as it's cut like a dinner jacket, if you want it, rock it. Go wild, the dress code is begging you to do it. As long as you have the confidence and the pieces are made well, you can look good going pretty much as deep as you want. Enjoy!
I guess I'll add one more thing, which is, what would I wear, personally, for such an invite? Well, I'm having a dinner suit made now - ivory peak single breasted jacket, classic black trousers. Ivory is already a fair bit louder than black/midnight. To turn up the volume, so to speak, I keep kicking around the idea of having some studs/links made with fairly large garnets, and I'd probably throw on a navy bowtie instead of black (because I own it) or possibly get a louder bowtie. I think I'd skip the temptation to get a whole new dinner jacket because I wouldn't find excuses to wear it, and also because my wife already thinks I'm insane.