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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.



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