White Tie Evening Dress Definition

Evening dress, also known as full evening dress or white tie, is the most formal dress code that exists for civilians today. It has a semi-formal counterpart known as black tie and a formal daytime equivalent known as morning dress. Evening dress is more strictly regulated than other forms of dress: a black tailcoat with silk facings sharply cut away at the front, black trousers with two rows of braid, a white stiff-fronted shirt, white stiff wing collar, white bow tie and a white low-cut waistcoat.

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

There exists a semi-formal counterpart known as black tie and a formal day time equivalent known as morning dress.

A lady must wear a formal ball gown when the dress is described as white tie. Where state decorations are specified, tiaras are usually worn by those women who are married.

Bandleader Vincent Lopez speaking into radio microphone, early 1920s, from period sheet music

What it is

Evening dress is more strictly regulated than other forms of dress, and properly consists of:

Black tailcoat with silk (ribbed or satin) 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 (attached to the shirt with collar studs)
White bowtie
White low-cut waistcoat
Black silk socks
Black patent leather shoes

Shirts, waistcoats and bow ties are now usually made of cotton marcella, although plain linen shirts and white or off-white silk ties and waistcoats are sometimes worn. Shirt studs and cufflinks should be silver or white. A white handkerchief and flower may be worn. At occasions of state, and in the presence of royalty, state decorations are worn by those who have been awarded them: miniature medals plus up to four breast stars, a narrow neck riband and a broad riband (sash).

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 (at the universities of 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.

Conductors of an orchestra or symphony playing classical music often are dressed in white tie.

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, Cambridge and Durham)
Choir Dress

White ties are not worn with military mess dress, where black ties are worn even with the most formal variants. In the Royal Navy, mess dress (as opposed to mess undress) requires a white waistcoat but a black tie.

Note

In the United Kingdom civilian day 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.

Tuxedos Definition

Formal Wear / Formalwear

The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/white_tie). 5/3/05

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A Dress Code With a Specification

White tie is less a style than a specification. Every element is prescribed — the tailcoat's silk facings, the two rows of braid on the trousers, the marcella cotton of shirt, waistcoat and bow tie, the wing collar fastened with studs — and variation that would be flair in any other dress code is simply incorrect here. That rigidity is the point: at a state dinner or a May ball, the uniform correctness of the men's dress throws all individual expression onto the women's ball gowns, decorations and orders, which carry the ceremony's rank and colour.

The accessories mark the grade of the occasion. Shirt studs and cufflinks in silver or white are standard; a white handkerchief and flower may be worn. Where state decorations are specified, the full apparatus appears — miniature medals, up to four breast stars, neck and broad ribands — and married women may wear tiaras. White gloves, scarf and cane remain optional extras from an era when the code governed a whole social season rather than a handful of nights a year.

White Tie, Black Tie, Morning Dress

The three codes form a ladder. Morning dress is the formal daytime equivalent, worn before evening. Black tie — the dinner jacket — is the semi-formal evening code and by far the most common today. White tie sits at the top, reserved for state, royal and grand ball occasions, which is why a lady must wear a formal ball gown when white tie is specified. Invitations state the code precisely because the codes are not interchangeable: arriving in black tie at a white-tie ball is underdressed in a way guests two centuries ago would have recognised instantly.

Common Questions

What is white tie?

White tie, also called evening dress or full evening dress, is the most formal dress code that exists for civilians today. Its semi-formal counterpart is black tie, and its formal daytime equivalent is morning dress.

What does the white tie outfit consist of?

Properly: a black tailcoat with silk facings cut away at the front, black trousers with two rows of braid down each leg, a white stiff-fronted shirt, a white stiff wing collar, a white bow tie, a white low-cut waistcoat, black silk socks and black patent leather shoes. Outdoors, a black silk plush top hat is appropriate, with an opera cloak or overcoat.

When is white tie worn?

Like black tie, evening dress is generally worn only after 6 p.m. Occasions that still require it include state dinners, commemoration balls and May balls at Oxford and Cambridge, hunt balls, some balls during the London Season, and the many balls of Austria and Continental Europe. Orchestra conductors often wear it.

White Tie Evening Dress