How to Buy a Tuxedo

When buying a tuxedo, rely on recommendations and referrals. Ask friends or others whose taste you trust to recommend a tailor who can make your tuxedo. Or check out ready-to-wear collections at a specialty shop or department store.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

The Jacket

1. Select a lightweight fabric for your tuxedo. Since most formal affairs are held indoors, you'll probably wear your suit in relatively comfortable temperatures. And because you're likely to be dancing, lightweight fabrics will help keep you cool.
2. Stick to basic black or deep, midnight blue when choosing a tuxedo color. Wear light-colored, off-white dinner jackets only during the summer months or in warm climates.
3. Choose a tuxedo style that suits your purposes. Black tie and tails is the most formal of men's evening wear and should be saved for truly special occasions. Double- and single-breasted dinner jackets are appropriate for any occasion.
4. Keep in mind that a single-breasted dinner jacket is left open and requires a cummerbund. Double-breasted jackets are worn buttoned when standing.
5. Choose either shawl or peak lapels - the only lapels appropriate for formal dinner jackets.
6. Find a jacket that flatters your face and build. Shawl lapels de-emphasize a round face, and jackets without vents make you look slimmer.

The Trousers

7. Select tuxedo trousers according to your type of dinner jacket - trousers with two stripes for tailcoats, and trousers with a single stripe for all other dinner jackets.
8. When wearing a tailcoat or cummerbund, wear trousers with a waist high enough to be completely covered by the tailcoat or cummerbund.
9. Choose trousers with vertical pockets for a dressier look.

The Tuxedo Shirt

10. Select a tuxedo shirt with either a wing or turndown collar. Wing collars will have a stiff, clean front, while turndown collars will have a softer, pleated front.
11. Make sure the shirt has a front bib construction that can be kept securely beneath the waistband at all times.
12. Be sure that the front bib section of the shirt will not extend past your suspenders.

Tips & Warnings

• Pay attention to the details. All dinner jackets should have a buttonhole on the lapel; pockets should be either jetted or double-besom (pockets with a welted, slit opening).
• For the trimmings, grosgrain or ribbed silk is far more elegant than satin.
• For white tie and tails, be sure the points of your waistcoat are higher than the points of your tailcoat.
• Never wear a cummerbund or vest with a double-breasted dinner jacket.
• Single vents are unacceptable for double-breasted jackets.
• Because you'll constantly be unbuttoning and buttoning it when moving from sitting to standing positions, a double-breasted jacket may be more trouble than it's worth.
• Use suspenders or braces to keep your trousers in place.
• Pleated trousers are perfectly acceptable with waistcoats and cummerbunds and allow for ease of movement.
• Flat-front trousers may not offer the roominess and comfort of pleated ones.