A few weeks ago as an usher at my cousin’s wedding. There were 90 people at this affair, and by my count, 13 rental tuxes. Nothing says love like paying $150 to rent an ill-fitting suit for 24 hours so you can roast in the August afternoon sun. (Not to mention that, dammit, tuxedos are evening wear. If we’re going to wear these ridiculous outfits, let’s at least do it right. Not that I’d look any less silly in a morning coat.)
If you ask me, the practice of giving the groom his tux free if his groomsmen all rent theirs should be outlawed.
Persephone’s Masquerade in DC in the spring. One of the few occasions each year for really putting on the dog. My GF and I got dolled up to the max. She wore a shot-silk gray/brown full-skirted party dress with maximum cleavage. I wore a long, slinky, skintight black long-sleeved dress with a sheer panel in front and slit all the way up one thigh, with black lace tights and a black lace scarf. While getting ready to go out we listened to Taco’s rendition of “Puttin’ on the Ritz” (a song with remarkable rhythmic patterns, if you listen closely).
I think my aunt’s wedding in ca 1988 was a smoking event, I believe I wore a peach coloured satin dress (I was 8 at the time so my memory is bit hazy).
It actually ticks me off when I’m supposed to give a concert in something other than tux or tails - I paid good money for them, and when I have to go out and buy something to suit someone else’s idea of Funky Formal, well, let’s just say it grates.
I typically wear my tux at least twice a month. I am a Freemason, and since we don’t have uniforms per se, we go black tie.
If you wear one more than once a year you should really just buy one. Most rental places trun over their inventory and you can pick up an almost new tux for less then the cost of a decent suit.
You’d be surprised how often you wear it, even as a goof to an informal event!
Cool, that’s my answer as well. I haven’t been a music major since then, and the choirs I’ve been in since are not quite as formal dress, requiring at most a suit or even a special vest.
Also, I feel bad, but my only tux is the one I got from high school and forgot to return.
March this year for a ball in Ankara, Turkey.
Foreign Serivce Officer, so I own one, but won’t have an ocassion to wear it again for a year, so may sell it.
Any offers? 42R, 34-36x30.
Why the fear of smokings, btw? Besides the vest/cummerbund and french cuffs, it’s hardly more trouble than an ordinary suit. I like wearing french cuffs and a vest to a suit anyway, so it’s pretty much even for me.