Evening dress

Evening dress (also known as full evening dress) or white tie is the most formal dress code that exists for civilians today.¹

There exists a semi-formal counterpart known as black tie.

Table of contents

1 What it is 2 When it is worn 3 Related forms of dress 4 External link 5 Note

What it is

Evening dress properly consists of:

• Black tailcoat with silk facings, sharply cut-away at the front;
• Black trousers with two rows of braid down each leg;
• White stiff-fronted shirt
• White stiff wing collar
• White bow tie
• White low-cut waistcoat
• Black silk stockings
• Black patent leather shoes

Shirt studs and cufflinks should be silver or white. A white handkerchief and flower may be worn. State decorations such as medals and sashes are usually worn by those who possess them.

Outdoors a black silk plush top hat is appropriate, with an opera cloak or overcoat, even during the summer. White gloves, scarf and cane are optional extras.

When it is worn

Like black tie, evening dress is generally only worn after 6 p.m. (see note 1 for an exception). Occasions that require white tie are increasingly rare, but in the United Kingdom these still include:

• State dinners (e.g. dinners with visiting heads of state)
• Commemoration balls and May balls (in Oxford and Cambridge respectively)
• Hunt balls
• Some balls during the London Season

In Austria and elsewhere in Continental Europe there are many balls where white tie is worn.

Related forms of dress

White ties were historically worn by clerics and in the professions that formerly were filled by priests and minor clerics. In various forms they are still worn as part of:

• Clerical dress (by persons in holy orders)
• Clerical dress (by clerks etc. in Parliament)
• Court dress (in courts of law)
• Court dress (in the Royal court)
• Academic dress (in the older universities such as Oxford and Cambridge)

External link

• Definition of white tie

Note

¹ In the United Kingdom civilian court dress (in the Royal court) is similar to white tie, but nowadays white tie is worn in its place to the most formal state occasions, e.g. by foreign ambassadors at the State Opening of Parliament. This is the case even though such occasions occur during the day.