What is a Tuxedo

What is a Tuxedo

Tuxedo Suit & Its Various Details

Tuxedo is a very elegant western ceremonial suit for the gentlemen.
It has a long history and there is enough literature available for one to really understand it as much as one wants. This small essay attempts to capture all what you need to know very quickly.
The hallmark of a tuxedo garment is the play of satin fabric along with the usual wool or blended (nowadays) suit fabric. Can there be a tuxedo without satin? Well, there can be, just like there can be jazz music without bass, but for the starters let’s just assume that a tuxedo and satin go hand in hand and not without each other.

There are three elements to a complete tuxedo Suit and those are a Dinner Jacket, Tuxedo Pants and Tuxedo Shirt. One can also add a waistcoat but let’s just focus on the first three pieces for a while. If you would like to know more about waistcoat, do write to us. 
Now all these three pieces, namely jacket, pants and shirts have elements which make them distinct and therefore separate them from the regular pieces.

Tuxedo Jacket

​A Tuxedo Jacket is adorned by a beautiful satin lapel. The cut of the lapel can be of any type, be it notch, peak or shawl. Notch and Peak lapel can have a boutonniere hole, not the shawl one. A classic tuxedo jacket is always black but sometime in its history, off white color was introduced (wool can never be pure white so a pure wool tuxedo jacket will at the best be off white. If it is pure white, it is polyester. Polyester is cheap). Then wine color too became popular and now different hues of blue have also been acceptable. So in today’s times, the accepted colors in tuxedos are Black, Blue, Wine and Off White. However the lapel is always black or white (only for off-white jackets). There are cases wherein people use the lapel color matching with the body fabric color. Well no one can stop them from doing so, but from the point of styling, the advice is to stick to White for off white jacket and black for all the other three colors.
Nowadays there are some fancy patterns like jacquard etc. which are becoming popular for the body fabric. They look nice since they bring about some change and creativity to the otherwise very set and strict color palette and design.
All the buttons of a tuxedo jacket are made/covered with the same satin fabric as that of the lapel.
We make all kinds of tuxedo jackets in flowing wool and wool blend fabrics. Know more about ordering here...

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Tuxedo Shirt

Tuxedo shirt is always white and is generally identified by its front panel, buttons and collar.
There are essentially two distinctive front panel styles.

Pique Bib Front: As the name explains, there is an additional paneling provided on the front. There is no placket in such a shirt (no placket is also known as French placket by some). Bib ends below the fifth button from the top and can be U shaped or square shaped.

Pleated Front: This is a decorative style element in a tuxedo shirt and stands out due to the pattern it forms on the front which is visible through the jacket opening. The pleats start from the top of the shirt and goes down till the end of the length. It is more flamboyant than the pique bib option and therefore is considered slightly less formal. These shirts are made with standard double placket.

Buttons
Traditionally a classic tuxedo shirt has a separate removable button strip which covers the first four buttons. These buttons are smaller, round made of resin in black color. Remaining buttons are standard white buttons. However nowadays lot of shirts are made with fixed buttons. These buttons can be of raisins or otherwise.
 Collars: Tuxedos shirts are worn with either black neck-tie or a bow tie. There are generally two types of collars which you will usually notice in a tuxedo shirt, either standard tie collars or wing tip. Wing Tip is worn with bow tie and standard tie collar with the neck tie.
Having mentioned all this, a crisp white normal shirt also goes well with a tuxedo jacket since it is the jacket which takes all the attention. So don’t sweat too much. Just ensure that the cuff of your shirt is a square cut French cuff and wear a nice black cuff link with it.

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Tuxedo Pants

​Normally Tuxedo pants are black in color irrespective of the color of the jacket. However blue color tuxedo jackets have emerged as an exception & can take blue pants. The most important element of tuxedo pants is the satin tape or piping running from waist down to bottom hem alongside the outer seem. These pants don’t have belt loops, at the most there are adjustable side tabs with shiny buckle. As it is, the waist part is supposed to get hidden under a cummerbund.

​Well these all are very fine details from the legacy. In today’s world, things have become more relaxed. So if you are not up to it and still have to wear a tuxedo suit, just don a white shirt, a nice fitted black trouser (with black belt) and a custom tailored tuxedo jacket. You are good to paint the town red.
So what are you waiting for? Reach out to us.