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50-410: [REDACTED] = Day (before 6 p.m.) [REDACTED] = Evening (after 6 p.m.)     = Bow tie colour [REDACTED] = Ladies [REDACTED] = Gentlemen White tie , also called full evening dress or a dress suit , is the most formal evening Western dress code . For men, it consists of a black tail coat (alternatively referred to as a dress coat, usually by tailors) worn over

100-478: 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 . 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

150-579: A black waistcoat is worn with white tie for academic occasions in the daytime. In the Netherlands, the attendants of the graduate student, called paranymphs , will also wear white tie. Some fraternities such as Freemasons and Odd Fellows wear dress coats to their meetings. In Britain, it is worn at certain formal occasions such as state banquets , City of London livery dinners and certain balls at Oxford , Cambridge , Durham , Edinburgh and St Andrews universities. The president and officers of

200-663: A few debutante balls such as the International Debutante Ball in New York City, and the Veiled Prophet Ball in St. Louis . In the southern United States, white tie is sometimes referred to as "costume de rigueur", adapted from French language due to the historical background of New France . It is sometimes used in invitations to masquerade balls and Mardi Gras celebrations, such as

250-696: A fusty adherence to a contrarian point of view. The bow tie hints at intellectualism , real or feigned, and sometimes suggests technical acumen, perhaps because it is so hard to tie. Bow ties are worn by magicians, country doctors, lawyers and professors and by people hoping to look like the above. But perhaps most of all, wearing a bow tie is a way of broadcasting an aggressive lack of concern for what other people think. Popular perception tends to associate bow tie wearers with particular professions , such as architects, debt collectors, attorneys, university professors, teachers, waiters, and politicians. Pediatricians frequently wear bow ties, for infants cannot grab them

300-402: A less formal and more comfortable alternative to full evening dress in the 1880s. By the early 20th century, full evening dress meant wearing a white waistcoat and tie with a black tailcoat and trousers; white tie had become distinct from black tie. Despite its growing popularity, the dinner jacket remained the reserve of family dinners and gentlemen's clubs during the late Victorian period. By

350-518: A mixture of fabrics. Some fabrics (e.g., wool or velvet) are much less common for bow ties than for ordinary four-in-hand neckties. The bow tie originated among Croatian mercenaries during the Thirty Years' War of the 17th century: the Croat mercenaries used a scarf around the neck to hold together the opening of their shirts. This was soon adopted (under the name cravat , derived from

400-499: A place: the American etiquette writer Emily Post stated in 1922 that "A gentleman must always be in full dress, tail coat, white waistcoat, white tie and white gloves" when at the opera, yet she called the tuxedo "essential" for any gentleman, writing that "It is worn every evening and nearly everywhere, whereas the tail coat is necessary only at balls, formal dinners, and in a box at the opera." It also continued to evolve. White tie

450-452: A potential comeback among men, though "the class conscious man recoils at the idea" of pre-tied bow ties and "[l]eft-wingers ... recoil at what they perceive to be a symbol of political conservatism." He argues that anachronism is the point, and that bow tie wearers are making a public statement of their disdain for changing fashion. Such people may not be economic conservatives, he argues, but they are social conservatives. In Smith's view,

500-469: A resurgence in the dress code's popularity, but by 1953, one etiquette writer stressed that "The modern trend is to wear 'tails' only for the most formal and ceremonious functions, such as important formal dinners, balls, elaborate evening weddings, and opening night at the opera". The last president to have worn white tie at a United States presidential inauguration was President John F. Kennedy in 1961, who wore morning dress for his inauguration , and

550-416: A specific size neck. Sizes can vary between approximately 14 inches (36 cm) and 19 inches (48 cm) as with a comparable shirt collar. Fixed-length bow ties are preferred when worn with the most formal wing-collar shirts, so as not to expose the buckle or clasp of an adjustable bow tie. Adjustable bow ties are the standard when the tie is to be worn with a less formal, lie-down collar shirt that obscures

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600-524: A white dress shirt with a starched or piqué 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

650-608: A white tie ensemble for his inauguration ball . While rare in the early 21st century, it survives as the formal dress code for royal and public ceremonies and audiences , weddings , balls , and a select group of other social events in some countries. In London, it is still used by ambassadors attending the Christmas ball offered by King Charles III at Buckingham palace as well as the Lord Mayor dinner at Mansion House. Notable international recurrent white tie events include

700-401: Is a type of necktie . A modern bow tie is tied using a common shoelace knot , which is also called the bow knot for that reason. It consists of a ribbon of fabric tied around the collar of a shirt in a symmetrical manner so that the two opposite ends form loops. There are generally three types of bow ties: the pre-tied, the clip-on, and the self-tie. Pre-tied bow ties are ties in which

750-660: 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 . Throughout the Early Modern period , western European male courtiers and aristocrats donned elaborate clothing at ceremonies and dinners: coats (often richly decorated), frilly and lacy shirts and breeches formed

800-662: The Duchess of Bedford . The Duchess of Richmond's ball in Brussels in 1815, dramatically interrupted by news of Napoleon's advance, and most males having to leave to rejoin their units for the Battle of Waterloo the next day, has been described as "the most famous ball in history". Balls also took place in Colonial America especially after the early 18th-century. The wealthy who participated in these dances followed

850-508: The French for " Croat ") by the upper classes in France, then a leader in fashion , and flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is uncertain whether the cravat then evolved into the bow tie and four-in-hand necktie , or whether the cravat gave rise to the bow tie, which in turn led to the four-in-hand necktie. The most traditional bow ties are usually of a fixed length and are made for

900-702: The Mardi Gras in Mobile in Alabama , or New Orleans Mardi Gras in Louisiana , emphasising the white tie expectations for men and full-length evening gowns for ladies. When the Metropolitan Museum of Art 's Costume Institute Gala in New York City announced a white tie dress code in 2014, a number of media outlets pointed out the difficulty and expense of obtaining traditional white tie, even for

950-741: The Nobel Prize ceremony in Sweden and the Vienna Opera Ball in Austria. In Scandinavia and the Netherlands, white tie is the traditional attire for doctoral conferments and is prescribed at some Swedish and Finnish universities, where it is worn with a top hat variant called a doctoral hat . At the universities in Uppsala and Lund in Sweden, it is still common for students to wear white tie at formal events. In Sweden and Finland,

1000-787: The Oxford Union are still required to wear white tie at every debate but since the 1930s, other speakers are only required to wear black tie. A few state dinners at the White House apply white tie, such as the one held for Queen Elizabeth II in 2007. Other notable examples include the Gridiron Club Dinner in Washington, D.C. , the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York City , in additions to

1050-731: 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

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1100-714: 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

1150-514: The "bat wing", which is parallel-sided like a cricket bat , and the "thistle", also known as the "butterfly". An example of each can also be seen below. Which is worn is a matter of personal preference. Some other shapes do exist; for instance, the Diamond Point, with pointed tips at both ends. This is a double-ended type, with both ends shaped, though occasionally, ties are tied in the single-ended type, in which only one end flares out to give

1200-570: The 19th century, the dance card became common; here ladies recorded the names of the men who had booked a particular dance with them. The grandest balls were at the French court in the Chateau de Versailles , with others in Paris. At royal balls, most guests did not expect to be able to dance, at least until very late in the night. Indeed, throughout the period dancers seem to have been a minority of

1250-549: The Middle Ages often included elements of performance, which gradually increased until the 17th century, often reducing the amount of dancing by the whole company. Medieval dance featured many group dances, and this type of dance lasted throughout the period when Baroque dance became common and occurred on until at least the 19th century, when dances for couples finally took over the formal dance. Many dances originated in popular forms but were given elegant formalizations for

1300-456: The backbone of their most formal attire. As the 18th century drew to a close, high society began adopting more austere clothing which drew inspiration from the dark hues and simpler designs adopted by country gentlemen. By the end of the 18th century, two forms of tail coat were in common use by upper-class men in Britain and continental Europe: the more formal dress coat (cut away horizontally at

1350-440: The batwing or thistle shape, and the other remains thin. To tie one of these requires careful consideration, to ensure the broader end finishes in front of the thinner one. Shown below on the right is one style of pre-tie/ready-tie bow tie. Wearing a ready-tied bow tie at formal occasions requiring a black or white tie dress code is usually considered a faux pas , though at occasions such as Schools Leavers' Proms or ones at which

1400-573: The bow tie is "the embodiment of propriety", an indicator of fastidiousness, and "an instant sign of nerddom in Hollywood movies", but "not the mark of a ladies' man" and "not exactly sexy". He attributes the building of this image to the association of the bow tie with newspaper editors (because of their fastidiousness with words), high-school principals, and bachelor English teachers. Most men, he observes, only wear bow ties with formal dress. There are usually two shapes of self-the bow ties available:

1450-558: The celebration of royal events, open to anyone who was appropriately dressed. It was at The Yew Tree Ball at Versailles in 1745 (a public ball celebrating the royal wedding of Madame de Pompadour 's son), that Pompadour was able to meet the disguised King Louis XV , dressed as a hedge. The distinction between a less formal "dance" and a formal "ball" was established very early, with improvised dancing happening after dinner, as it occurred in Jane Austen 's Persuasion (1818). In

1500-579: The celebrity guests. According to the British etiquette guide Debrett's , the central components of full evening dress for men are a white marcella shirt with a wing collar and single cuffs , fastened with studs and cufflinks ; the eponymous white marcella bow tie is worn around the collar, while a low-cut marcella waistcoat is worn over the shirt. Over this is worn a black double-breasted barathea wool or ultrafine herringbone tailcoat with silk faced peak lapels . The trousers have two galon down

1550-569: The corporate world, donning very conservative tailored suits, with a rise of almost 6 million units in sales. These were often worn with buttoned-up blouses, some with pleats up the front like tuxedo shirts, and accessorized with bow ties that were slightly fuller than the standard bow ties worn by their male counterparts, but typically consisting of the same fabrics, colors, and patterns as men's ties. Russell Smith , style columnist for Toronto's The Globe and Mail , records mixed opinions of bow tie wearers. He observed that bow ties were experiencing

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1600-559: The dinner jacket became more popular, especially in the US, and informal variations sprang up, like the soft, turn-down collar shirt and later the double-breasted jacket; relaxing social norms in Jazz Age America meant white tie was replaced by black tie as the default evening wear for young men, especially at nightclubs. According to The Delineator , the years after World War I saw white tie "almost abandoned". But it did still have

1650-448: The distinctive bow is sewn onto a band that goes around the neck and clips to secure. Some "clip-ons" dispense with the band altogether, instead clipping straight to the collar. The traditional bow tie, consisting of a strip of cloth that the wearer has to tie by hand, is also known as a "self-tie", "tie-it-yourself", or "freestyle" bow tie. Bow ties may be made of any fabric material, but most are made from silk , polyester , cotton , or

1700-401: 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

1750-457: The elite ball. Dancing lessons were considered essential for both sexes. The ballets de cour at the French court were part social dance and part performance. It declined in the later 17th century, whereupon the formal ball took over as a grand and large evening social event. Although most were strictly by invitation only, with printed invitations coming in the mid-18th century, some balls were public, either with tickets sold or in cases such as

1800-528: 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

1850-415: The front of the tailcoat, which necessitates a medium or high waistline and often suspenders (braces) for the trousers. As one style writer for GQ magazine summarises "The simple rule of thumb is that you should only ever see black and white not black, white and black again". While Debrett's accepts double cuffs for shirts worn with white tie, most tailors and merchants suggest that single, linked cuffs are

1900-648: The front) and the less formal morning coat , which curved back from the front to the tails. From around 1815, a knee-length garment called the frock coat became increasingly popular and was eventually established, along with the morning coat, as smart daywear in Victorian England. The dress coat, meanwhile, became reserved for wear in the evening. The dandy Beau Brummell adopted a minimalistic approach to evening wear—a white waistcoat, dark blue tailcoat, black pantaloons and striped stockings. Although Brummell felt black an ugly colour for evening dress coats, it

1950-563: The guests, and mostly drawn from the young and unmarried. Many guests were happy to talk, eat, drink, and watch. A bal blanc ("white ball", as opposed to a bal en blanc , merely with an all-white theme) was or is only for unmarried girls and their chaperones, with the women all in white dresses. The modern debutante ball may or may not continue these traditions, but are typically worn with pure white Ball gown and opera-length white gloves . A well-documented ball occurred at Kingston Lacy , Dorset , England, on 19 December 1791. The occasion

2000-399: The most traditional and formal variation acceptable under the dress code. Double cuffs are not frequently worn or recommended with white tie. Decorations may also be worn and, unlike Debrett's , Cambridge University 's Varsity student newspaper suggests a top hat, opera cloak and silver-topped cane are acceptable accessories. Bow tie The bow tie or dicky bow / b oʊ /

2050-556: The neck but clips to the collar points. Ball (dance party) The word ball derives from the Latin word ballare , meaning 'to dance', and bal was used to describe a formal dancing party in French in the 12th century. The ballo was an Italian Renaissance word for a type of elaborate court dance, and developed into one for the event at which it was performed. The word also covered performed pieces like Il ballo delle ingrate by Claudio Monteverdi (1608). French developed

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2100-402: The neckband of the tie. "One-size-fits-all" adjustable bow ties are a later invention that helps to moderate production costs. The lavallière is a type of cravat similar to the bow tie that was popularly worn in the 19th century in France. It is of a similar fashion to the bow tie but has a larger knot and drooping ends. To its devotees, the bow tie suggests iconoclasm of an Old World sort,

2150-399: The outside of both legs. The correct shoes are patent leather court shoes . Although a white scarf and evening overcoat remains popular in winter, the traditional white gloves, top hats , canes and cloaks are now rare. Women wear a full-length evening dress , with the option of jewellery, a tiara, a pashmina, coat or wrap, and long white gloves . The waistcoat should not be visible below

2200-514: The participants are unlikely to have had much experience wearing bow ties, it may be commonplace. As shown in the pictures below, another type of ready-tie bow tie is the wooden bow tie , a fairly new product made mostly in the U.S and Canada. Other materials are also in use. An example would be bow ties that are made of natural bird feathers; this too is a fairly new product made mostly in the U.S. and Europe (in Poland). A clip-on does not go around

2250-428: The turn of the 20th century, full evening dress consisted of a black tailcoat made of heavy fabric weighing 500 to 560 grams per metre (16 to 18 oz/yd). Its lapels were medium width and the white shirt worn beneath it had a heavily starched, stiff front, fastened with pearl or black studs and either a winged collar or a type called a "poke", consisting of a high band with a slight curve at the front. After World War I,

2300-467: The verb baller , and the noun bal for the event—from where it swapped into languages like English or German—and bailar , the Spanish and Portuguese verbs for 'to dance' (although all three Romance languages also know danser , danzar , and dançar respectively). Catalan uses the same word, ball , for the dance event. Ballet developed from the same root. Elite formal dances in

2350-691: The way they could grab a four-in-hand necktie. Bow ties do not readily droop into places where they would get soiled or where they could, whether accidentally or deliberately, strangle the wearer. Clowns sometimes use an oversized bow tie for comic effect. Classical musicians traditionally perform in white tie or black tie ensembles, of which both designs are bow ties. Bow ties are also associated with weddings , mainly because of their almost universal inclusion in traditional formal evening-wear. Bow ties, or slight variations thereof, have also made their way into women's wear, especially business attire. The 1980s saw professional women, especially in law, banking, and

2400-458: Was adopted by other dandies, like Charles Baudelaire , and black and white had become the standard colours by the 1840s. Over the course of the 19th century, the monotone colour scheme became a codified standard for evening events after 6 p.m. in upper class circles. The styles evolved and evening dress consisted of a black dress coat and trousers, white or black waistcoat, and a bow tie by the 1870s. The dinner jacket (black tie/tuxedo) emerged as

2450-429: Was to celebrate the completion of major alterations to the house and the event was organized by Frances Bankes, wife of Henry Bankes , owner of the house. The event involved 140 guests, with dancing from 9pm to 7am, interrupted by supper at 1am. They would all have had dinner at home many hours earlier, before coming out. Other, grander, balls served supper even later, up to 3.30 a.m., at an 1811 London ball given by

2500-431: Was worn with slim-cut trousers in the early 1920s; by 1926, wide-lapelled tailcoats and double-breasted waistcoats were in vogue. The Duke of Windsor (then Prince of Wales and later Edward VIII) wore a midnight blue tailcoat, trousers and waistcoat in the 1920s and 1930s both to "soften" the contrast between black and white and allow for photographs to depict the nuances of his tailoring. The late 1920s and 1930s witnessed

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