What shoes for black tie?

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@Kalhoun

Isn’t that what my cite said? You would not want to show up at a black tie event in England wearing a tux. You wouldn’t fit in. Likewise for the reverse. They’re called the same thing but they’re very different looks.

Huh?

Black tie in England means a tux. It’s just not called a tux - it’s called a dinner jacket.

[Quartz]

@Hogwash

My work’s Christmas party is this coming Friday, and is black tie at a particularly swanky location. I’ve bought a dinner jacket and trousers today, but am undecided on shoes. The only black shoes I own are slip-ons that I use to work in (more for comfort than looks), so these are a no-no.

Ordinary black lace-up leather shoes are just fine. Polish them as best you can. Super-polished to a mirror isn’t necessary.

You might want to treat yourself to a cummerbund if you’re not using braces - it’ll help keep your shirt from coming out.

[Fuzzy_Dunlop]

@Kalhoun

Isn’t that what my cite said? You would not want to show up at a black tie event in England wearing a tux. You wouldn’t fit in. Likewise for the reverse. They’re called the same thing but they’re very different looks.

Really Not All That Bright is correct, a dinner jacket is exactly the same thing as the jacket on a tuxedo. They’re two names for the same thing. Tuxedo may be more common here, but lot’s of Americans who wear them for more occasions than senior prom do call them dinner jackets.

There’s an equivocation that goes on between ‘formal’ as in formal evening wear and ‘formal’ as in dressy. Traditionally, a white tie and tailcoat was worn to a ‘formal’ engagement. Anything less formal than that was necessarily semi-formal (or less), so semi-formal traditionally referred to a dinner jacket and black bow tie. Wearing a nice suit would thus make it an informal event - not because suits aren’t dressy, but because by definition they’re not formal or evening wear.

For virtually anyone I know in 2008, semi-formal means ‘semi-dressy’ - or partially casual- and if you expect people to interpret it as black tie, it’s a terrible way of communicating it. Some stuffy people like to insist that semi-formal should always be understood to mean black tie but they’re just being pretentious and unclear and out of touch.

I seriously doubt there’s a significant difference between UK and US. I’ve never lived in the UK but I suspect that by and large the notion that your average UK resident is dressier or attends more black/white tie functions is a falsehood.

[whole_bean]

At least in America (and so possibly irrelevant) –

1. If you want to know what is “appropriate,” then the answer is patent leather. There is no alternative; anything else and you might as well be wearing tennis shoes. You can buy a nice pare (with leather soles - also very important unless you’re very old or somehow disabled) for less than $100 on zappos.com or the like. You can also rent them (at least in the states). If you want to wear highly polished shoes, fine. You’re bucking convention, even though many others might as well - these things aren’t democratic.

2. Nice patent leather shoes are not tacky.

3. I’ve been to many white tie events. I wore “tails” or a tailcoat.

Aside - I have never understood the desire to bastardize men’s formal wear, though my hunch is that it’s somehow related to the fact that an escort’s attire should match his date’s. There are plenty of “dressy” outfits that are more practical, for most folks’ purposes, than tuxes, but they would not “work” if your date was in a gown.

[whole_bean]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

I’d never heard of a white tie event in the US. What were they, if you don’t mind me asking?

Debuts, Mardi Gras balls, charity events, weddings - whenever the invitation says so.

[valleyofthedolls]

@Really Not All That Bright

No- “black tie” means the same thing here; the difference is that in the US, black tie = super-formal, while in Britain black tie = semi-formal. We don’t have an equivalent of white tie.

This isn’t true. It means the same in the United States as it does everywhere else.

Black Tie = semi-formal evening wear. White Tie = formal evening wear.

Strollers = semi-formal day wear. Morning Dress = formal day wear.

White dinner jackets you wear same as you would white shoes or in warmer climates.

If black tie is considered “super formal” these days it’s only because most Americans are slobs and think khakis and polos are getting dressed up.

Also, I’m probably the only one out there but I think men look awesome in dinner jackets and velvet slippers.