Groom
Dress Code BLACK TIE
The black tie wedding has grown in popularity and can look stunning in photographs
This summer don’t be surprised if you find yourself invited to a ‘black tie wedding’. It seems this classic attire, colloquially known as the ‘penguin suit’, has become popular again and the contrast between the black dinner jacket and bow-tie compared to the gleaming white shirt makes for stunning photographs as the groom and his ushers group together to celebrate this special day.
Considered sophisticated and the dress code for many grand and formal events such as award ceremonies and grand balls, black tie or the dinner jacket (DJ) has been around for some time.
Originally created for Edward VII in the 1860s when he was Prince of Wales, we can put its transatlantic journey to America down to James Brown-Potter, a New York coffee broker. He visited England around this time and met the Prince who invited him to dinner. When Brown-Potter asked what he should wear, the Prince suggested his tailor make him a dinner jacket. On his return to America Brown-Potter introduced the jacket to his country club Tuxedo Park and it became an immediate sensation, hence the ‘tuxedo’ or ‘tux’ as it became to be known among polite society.
In the 1930s the dinner jacket, or tux, reached its heyday with actors such as Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart wearing black dinner jackets in films. Cary Grant’s debonair image was perfectly complemented by the stylish tux and Humphrey Bogart popularised the white dinner jacket, an American invention for summer, which he wore in the classic film Casablanca.
Since then numerous colours and patterns have been introduced to the dinner jacket, however the most enduring style which has managed to maintain its sophisticated appeal is traditional black tie with a black dinner jacket and white shirt.
