Dolores del Río in ball gown and Fred Astaire in white tie in Flying Down to Rio (1933)
Part of a series on
Western dress codes and corresponding attires
Formal (full dress)
White tie
Morning dress
Full dress uniform
Frock coat
Evening gown
Ball gown
Semi-formal (half dress)
Black tie
Black lounge suit
Mess dress uniform
Evening gown
Cocktail dress
Informal (undress, "dress clothes")
Suit
Service dress uniform
Cocktail dress
Pantsuit
Casual (anything not above)
Business casual
Casual Friday
Combat uniform
Smart casual
Workwear
Streetwear
Sportswear known as Sportswear (fashion) and Athleisure
Undress
Supplementary alternatives
Ceremonial dress
law courts
royal courts
diplomatic
academic, etc.
Religious clothing
cassock, habit, etc.
Folk costume
Distinctions
Orders
medals, etc.
Legend:
= Day (before 6 p.m.) = Evening (after 6 p.m.) = Bow tie colour = Ladies = Gentlemen
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White tie, also called full evening dress or a dress suit, is the most formal evening Western dress code.[1] For men, it consists of a black tail coat (alternatively referred to as a dress coat, usually by tailors) worn over a white dress shirt with a starched or pique bib, white piqué waistcoat and the white bow tie worn around a standing wing collar. Mid or high-waisted black trousers with galon, a braid of trim consisting of two silk stripes to conceal the outer seams of the trousers, along with court shoes (British English) (pumps in American English) complete the outfit. Orders, decorations and medals may be worn. Acceptable accessories include a black top hat, white gloves, a white scarf, a pocket watch, a white pocket square, and a boutonnière. Women wear full-length ball or evening gowns with evening gloves and, optionally, tiaras, jewellery, and a small handbag.[2]
The dress code's origins can be traced back to the end of the 18th century. New fully black-coloured justaucorps styles emerged around the Age of Revolution, notably adopted by the bourgeois third estate of the Estates General of the Kingdom of France. Increasingly following the French Revolution, high society men abandoned the richly decorated justaucorps coats for more austere cutaway dress coats in dark colours, with cuts perhaps further inspired by the frocks and riding coats of country gentlemen. Gradually replacing also breeches, lacy dress shirts and jabots with plain white dress shirts, shorter waistcoats, white cravats and pantaloons, this became known as directoire style. By the early 19th-century Regency era, dark dress tailcoats with light trousers became standard daywear, while black and white became the standard colours for evening wear. Although the directoire style was replaced for daytime by black frock coats and bowties by mid-19th century, cutaway black dress tailcoats with white bowtie has remained established for formal evening wear ever since.
Despite the emergence of the more comfortable semi-formal black tie dress code in the 1880s, full evening dress tailcoats remained the staple. Towards the end of the Victorian era, white bow ties and waistcoats became the standard for full evening dress, contrasting with black bow ties and waistcoats or cummerbunds for black tie.
Following the social changes after the First World War and especially with the counterculture of the 1960s, white tie was increasingly replaced by black tie as default evening wear for more formal events. Since the late 20th century, white tie tends to be reserved for the most formal evening occasions, such as at banquets following investitures, state dinners and audiences, in addition to formal balls and galas such as the Vienna Opera Ball in Austria, the Nobel Prize banquet in Stockholm, Mardi Gras balls in New Orleans, Commemoration balls at Oxford and May balls at Cambridge, and the Al Smith Memorial Dinner in New York. White tie still also occurs at traditional weddings and church celebrations, at certain societies and fraternities, as well as occasionally around some traditional European universities and colleges.
^"White Tie Dress Code". Debrett's. Archived from the original on 23 March 2020. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
^"Dress Code For Wedding Guests". infinitybridesmaids.com.au. 16 February 2021.
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