Proper Apparel For Men
American gentlemen are no longer dependent on English tailors or on
English fashions as they were some years ago. The American type of
physique is a distinct one, and London tailors have never been able to
fit American men as well as they do their own clients. Moreover social
life is so different in the United States from what it is in England
that men really need different clothes.
Practically all Americ
n men are business men for the working hours of
the day, and few of them have any time or inclination for anything save
business clothes while daylight lasts. For dinner or for the evening
what are generally called evening clothes are permissible, and in fact
obligatory in large cities for anything beyond the most informal home
functions.
For the evening there is the informal and formal dress suit. The former
consists of the long-tailed coat worn with either a white or black
waistcoat. For a dancing party or formal dinner the white waistcoat is
generally preferred, and, if it is worn, it must be accompanied by a
white lawn tie. A made-up bow is considered incorrect. The
accompaniments to a suit of this sort are patent-leather shoes and white
kid gloves if dancing is a part of the evening programme.
The informal evening suit includes the shorter dinner jacket or Tuxedo,
as it was formerly called, and, strictly speaking, this is only
considered proper for the club or for parties where ladies are not
expected to be present. However, men who commonly dress for dinner in
the home circle generally prefer the dinner jacket to the long coat, and
well-dressed men are often seen wearing it at small dinner parties, at
the theater or at any informal evening event. This coat is always worn
with a black tie and waistcoat, and it is not a suitable apparel for a
dance or any large formal evening affair.
The correct dress for a daytime wedding is a black frock coat with light
trousers, light fancy waistcoat and gray gloves and gray Ascot or
four-in-hand tie, and the frock coat with black waistcoat proper for
church or when making afternoon calls. Many young men are adopting for
afternoon wear the English morning suit, which consists of a cutaway
coat with trousers and waistcoat to match and made of some other color
save black.