Dinner Jackets

 

Dinner Jackets

Mens Dinner Jackets traditionally are black tie evening jackets that were required by men to wear to formal dinners and where the tuxedo as we know it came from. If you ever had an event that required wearing a jacket in the evening but not a suit, you may have had an invitation that required wearing a mens dinner jacket. A mens dinner jacket was traditionally black in color but had black satin lapels and collar that gave the jacket it's formal evening look. The jacket would be made like a suit jacket would without tails when a really formal event required tails. The man wearing the dinner jacket would always wearing matching pants that had the black satin or grosgrain stripes on the legs making it a tuxedo in the US but just a dinner jacket in the UK. These days, you'll find these jackets worn with Stacy Adams Shoes.

A tuxedo in the UK would actually require a white color jacket. In many European countries such as France, Portugal, Germany, Poland and Russia, the jacket would only be referred to as a "Smoking Jacket" and not a mens dinner jacket. In England in the more proper society circles, a well dressed man would wear a regular suit that known as a casual lounge suit which is basically a standard men's suit as we know it and in the evening would change outfits and put on the dinner jacket. If you ever watched the hit British TV show "Downton Abbey", you would have noticed the changing or outfits for the proper dinners that the characters engaged in and the men who were invited to the house wearing dinner jackets and all of the other formality that was employed. life back in England a hundred years ago was certainly a different World among the upper crust but they sure had their traditions when it came to how to dress and what to wear. The dinner jacket was certainly an important part of dressing properly among the wealthy and the created the whole formal attire look making the dinner jacket an important part of the ensemble.
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