It’s my wedding next month, and I’ve been lying awake at night, agonising over what to wear. As a menswear writer, I would have thought I’d know exactly what I want, but while a conventional suit is a lovely thing for a wedding, I want something with a bit of extra zest – what I call “main character energy”.
And what, today, does that entail? If anything, it means opting for something more traditional. Hackett’s head of tailoring, Graham Simpkins, is one of many to have observed a shift towards old-school dress codes for contemporary weddings. “We’ve seen a strong increase in interest around formalwear as more customers gravitate towards morning dress and black tie,” he says. “More dinner suits are going through the [Savile Row] workshop than we’d normally see for wedding season, and we’ve even got three sets of bespoke white tie and tails being made at the moment.”
If white tie and tails might seem a bit much, the morning suit is more feasible. After all, your wedding look should be in tune with your venue: a church wedding, for example, almost certainly calls for morning dress.
“For traditional venues, we always recommend morning suits,” confirms Edward Sexton’s creative director, Dominic Sebag-Montefiore. “When it’s well cut, a morning suit is incredibly elegant,” he continues. “But it’s very difficult to fit and the proportions need to be right.” (It’s why Sexton primarily offers morning suits either made-to-order or bespoke.) The trousers need to be almost scarily high, supported by braces, with a waistcoat that just covers your trouser waistband. The tailcoat should be snug, with tails curling close around your hips to fall flush at the backs of the knees. As for the colours: “Our advice to grooms is to adhere to convention,” says Sebag-Montefiore, “but to try and put a bit of an edge on it. When you go for the classic grey ‘cashmere stripe’ trousers and black morning coat, it can feel very Victorian and severe.”
Edward Sexton has released a new capsule collection of contemporary morning suits with sharp detailing (prices from £3,300). Options include a black tailcoat, with grosgrain-edge tapes to trim the lapels (King Charles wears these on his own black morning coat), paired with a matching double-breasted waistcoat and trousers with a subtle charcoal stripe. Alternatively, a three-piece morning suit in light grey “feels fresher and more vibrant”, says Sebag-Montefiore, than a classic black morning coat and grey trouser combo.
Occasionwear specialist Favourbrook offers six different morning-coat materials and 11 waistcoat shapes to choose from (morning coats from £720, waistcoats from £190). Founder Oliver Spencer advises grooms to pay attention to those traditional details that will set you apart from guests. “We’ve just reintroduced white waistcoat slips, for example,” he says. Slips are thin bands of white starched cotton that button into your waistcoat and frame its lapels – a nod to the Regency era, where it was common practice to wear two layered waistcoats. Other notable purveyors include Lower Sloane Street’s Oliver Brown, which offers a striking Prince of Wales check morning suit (£900), and Dunhill, which sent a duo of handsome-looking versions down the runway as part of its SS25 collection (available bespoke from £5,900).
The other statement option, of course, is the tuxedo, popular in the US and great if you’re resolved to throw a party. The “tux” takes its name from the Tuxedo Park Club north of New York City; the story being that during the 1860s, the club’s members, inspired by the future King Edward VII’s bright new “celestial blue” dinner jacket made by Savile Row tailors Henry Poole, adopted jackets cut in the same style as an informal uniform.
It may explain why midnight remains a classic colour. Brunello Cucinelli has a rakish navy silk dinner jacket finished with cream piping (£4,100), while Tom Ford’s deep blue O’Connor dinner suit with satin trim remains a modern classic (£4,990). Ralph Lauren Purple Label’s eveningwear also plays with shades of blue and white – cream gabardine jackets are paired with navy trousers, while dinner jackets with blue satin lapels are styled with blue-and-white paisley trousers (from £977).
Mickael Korausch, founder of black-tie-focused brand La Bowtique and author of Modern Black Tie: A Guide, offers a word of caution. “Keep it classic. Choose a traditional dinner suit in black or midnight blue, or a cream dinner jacket for warm climes.” Also: “A hand-tied bow tie elevates a dinner suit. You can wear an amazing suit but you will ruin the look if you wear a pre-tied bow tie.”
“If you’re wearing a classic dinner suit, there are certain things that we encourage to honour tradition,” adds Sebag-Montefiore. “These include grosgrain-faced lapels and covered buttons, no vents in your jacket, no pocket flaps, and trousers with plain hems. We also suggest switching into a silk shirt, and possibly even a smoking jacket, when the party really starts.”
A smoking jacket is my third, and perhaps least conventional, option. Made in velvet, or occasionally silk moiré, it usually boasts a shawl collar, braided cuffs, fastenings and “olivettes” (corded toggles that function as buttons). Surprisingly louche, there is perhaps nothing better suited to a “main character” wedding look.
At Henry Poole, bespoke smoking jackets are something of a speciality (from £6,102). “It comes from the Victorian period,” explains owner Simon Cundey. “After dinner, the men would slip into smoking jackets to smoke cigars. Velvet absorbs the smell much better than wool.” Poole’s tend to be double-breasted, in dark, jewel-coloured velvets (midnight blue, burgundy or bottle green) with generous shawl satin facings. The jacket’s braided cuffs can even be customised. But if a bespoke smoking jacket feels a little too extravagant, there are plenty of handsome ready-to-wear options. See New & Lingwood (£995) or Oliver Brown, which offers jackets in distinctive shades of charcoal, burnt orange and olive green (from £495).
What to do, then? Our wedding venue is a Victorian music hall in east London, so I’ve decided to go for black tie. And, having weighed up all these suiting options, I’ve also decided to commit polygamy. The ceremony calls for a sleek double-breasted dinner suit in midnight-coloured mohair from Edward Sexton, while the party afterwards requires a decadent Henry Poole velvet smoking jacket (in midnight blue again). My conclusion: get married once, but get dressed twice. And I’m not alone. “Lots of our customers wear morning dress for the ceremony and change into black tie come the evening,” says Spencer. “An outfit change during a wedding can be really fun.”
Model, Henry Kitcher at Initial. Casting by Piergiorgio Del Moro, Helena Balladino at DM Casting. Grooming, Dimitris Sarantou at Beehive Artists. Production, Costas Kokkinos at Team This Production, Luisa Saro at Tarifa
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