Black dinner jacket / white trou?

[Fletch]

Was this ever a summer formal style? When? Where?

I'm considering it for a Gatsby Night where I'll be in the band. We'll mostly be in black tuxes. I'd be behind a music stand, so I'd look like I fit in.

I know I've seen this look in pictures. (Maybe movies?) I just can't find them now.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Hello, I do think it would look fairly well those two going together, I have done the same a few times, wear white silk pleated and cuffed pants with a black (no tails) tux top. And on the flip side, a cream white dinner jacket with black or even very dark blue pants. At times, I feel it has a more "jazzy" appeal than just wearing all black.....

 

[Fletch]

My Google-fu tells me the combo was worn in:
- the Edwardian era
- post-WW2, by younger men (of whom I am not one)
- Rangoon

Des Moines in August can feel like Rangoon. But I don't think that qualifies as tropical atmosphere.

 

[Rabbit]

Was this ever a summer formal style? When? Where?

I'm considering it for a Gatsby Night where I'll be in the band. We'll mostly be in black tuxes. I'd be behind a music stand, so I'd look like I fit in.

I know I've seen this look in pictures. (Maybe movies?) I just can't find them now.

In the Astaire/ Rogers movie A Gay Divorcee (1934), there is a formation dance (toward the final part of the movie) where one half of the men wear black jacketings & cream trousers, the other half wear cream jacketings and black trousers.

 

[Fletch]

The picture in my mind is early-to-mid '20s. Possibly a collegiate crowd.

Then there were these guys. They were anything but collegiate.

 

[dhermann1]

To quote PooBah in The Mikado, "I have known it done."
Holy cow! I didn't know the House of David was a band as well as a baseball team? Do you have any history on them?
And Fletch, you're a young man.

 

[Undertow]

fftopic:
You're playing at the Gatsby Gala?!

Consarnit! If tickets weren't a purse-full, I'd run my lady out to it and we'd join you! I don't know if you've ever attended one in the past, but I understand they're a lot of fun. Lot's of young people and folks really putting on their best.

Alas, in this economy and with some major spending ahead of us in April, we already planned to skip this one. Perhaps if they knocked those tickets down to $25...but then I suppose it wouldn't be worth their effort.

Regarding the OP, I thought I had seen this combo with a band playing on a cruise ship, but I can't find anything, naturally.

 

[kiwilrdg]

Sounds like a great combo for a band member. Musicians have a lot of leeway for appropriate attire.

White or black shoes?

Sounds like if you guys need a roadie for that gig Undertow could be your guy.:eusa_clap

 

[Chasseur]

There is an American Apparel Arts ( or Esquire?) picture with this combination that is Flusser's book Dressing the Man. Unfortunately I do not have an electronc version of this photo.

 

[Fletch]

White or black shoes?

Spectators. Why choose?

Waist is tricky. Black vest is too formal. Black crumbcatcher over whites looks like a sign saying PLEASE DON'T FEED THE POTBELLIED PIG. I'm thinking a narrow black moc-croc belt with a silver buckle.

 

[avedwards]

Spectators. Why choose?

Waist is tricky. Black vest is too formal. Black crumbcatcher over whites looks like a sign saying PLEASE DON'T FEED THE POTBELLIED PIG. I'm thinking a narrow black moc-croc belt with a silver buckle.

Personally I think a belt is too casual to be worn with any sort of black tie combination. Why not just a double-breasted jacket?

 

[nihil]

Indeed. No belt with black tie, please.

 

[Quigley Brown]

The picture in my mind is early-to-mid '20s. Possibly a collegiate crowd.

Then there were these guys. They were anything but collegiate.

Have you seen their baseball team?

 

[1961MJS]

Personally I think a belt is too casual to be worn with any sort of black tie combination. Why not just a double-breasted jacket?

Hi

I agree with this one in a weird way. Most formal trousers have different fasteners than American Blue Jeans and Khaki's and they need to be covered up. Having said that, aren't you also supposed to wear the tux jacket buttoned? Wouldn't this cover up the closeline tied around his waist anyway? I DID like the potbellied pig comment, but hey, I resemble that remark.

I'd rather have a white jacket and black pants, PERSONALLY.

Just my $0.02 and worth EVERY PENNY.

 

[Fletch]

I'd rather have a white jacket and black pants, PERSONALLY.

I have those, but I don't want to stand out that much from the band!

Here's that Dressing the Man illustration, BTW. Mid to late 1930s by the look of it.

The DB jacket (mine's coming in the mail) gets around the waist issue. In fact, a lightweight black DB was what you wore in summer before the white jacket came into acceptance.

The metal buttons give the jacket a nice nonchalance - they're a nod to the blazer and whites look, which was considered almost black tie with the resort crowd of the day. The buttons might be all that makes this jacket work with the whites. It might even have been midnite instead of black.

The shoes are, I think deliberately, obscured. You could wear spectators with a blazer, but I suspect patent leathers were best for this rig.

You just know he's got a boater checked somewhere, with a broad brim and a striped ribbon band.

 

[Chasseur]

Fletch,

Thank you for putting up an electronic copy of that photo. This issue has come up a couple of times on the forum and I've often wished to have that photo to give as an example.

The shoes are something I'd have to think about. I'm not sure I like black patent shoes with white trousers, but something like white bucks would look odd with formal wear as well... Those white formal shoes the wedding rental places normally pair with those white tuxedos people like to rent for daytime weddings?

 

[Fletch]

Those white formal shoes the wedding rental places normally pair with those white tuxedos people like to rent for daytime weddings?

With all due respect...yuk.

Maybe an old-style "town last" white laceup like the Stacy Adams Madison.

 

[Chasseur]

With all due respect...yuk.

Agreed, I have the same reaction to those... Thats why I'm a little lost with what footwear to wear with this outfit.

 

[Dinerman]

 

[dhermann1]

OK, just to complicate things a little. Are those gabardine trousers with a shiny stripe down the side, just like the black one would have? And of course no cuffs. I definitely think those are spectators on the dude.