Style · 1 June 2026
The Discipline of Black Tie
Some invitations arrive with gravitas. Here is how to answer them.
Black tie is a uniform, and that is its mercy. The rules are narrow enough that the only real decisions left are quality and fit — which is to say, the decisions that matter.
A midnight-blue dinner jacket reads blacker than black under evening light, with a grosgrain or satin facing on the lapel and nothing on the cuff to shout. The shirt is plain or finely pleated; the bow is self-tied and a touch imperfect, because a perfect bow is a clip-on lie.
Spend nothing on novelty and everything on cloth. The man who looks best at the table is almost always the one who tried least visibly.
