Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
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There's a difference between having a dress code and having everyone wear the same color. It's such a tiresome imposition on the guests to buy or rent clothes for this one event.
Black tie is even a step worse into the ugliness of modernity. The Dutch Reformation basically killed colors in formalwear and now we all have to live with the consequences. Let people wear some colors, as people have done for thousands of years before the Protestants fucked it up.
People wear ugly and garish colors all the time though, just look at modern streetwear. If this was corporate life in Japan or the City of London in 1957 then a healthy opposition to bland dress code conformity would be fair. But it isn’t. Today, black tie events are one of the only kinds of occasions when the holistic beauty of a crowd, that symphony of aesthetic harmony, is actually visible. Even office jobs now see a huge variety of outfits, colors and cuts. And rooms just sing when everyone’s in black tie, your eye isn’t immediately drawn to the people and their dress but to the whole space, the event, the vibe, man as collective becomes visible. It’s beautiful, in a way even a collection of fabulous but varied outfits could not be.
I can't hear you over the sound of my novelty suit :V
(The sound is ゴゴゴゴ )
Do I have to be wary, perhaps, of touching doorknobs?
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Agree, though this is all opinion. I am a great fan of the dinner jacket/tuxedo. I was very tempted (and still am) to get a custom tuxedo made for myself from a guy I now refer to as "my tailor" in Bangkok (he has made suits for US presidents--this to me speaks of quality of material and detail, if not style). I am a dinner jacket fan when I have only worn a tuxedo twice in my life and probably would have to search for reasons to wear one again. A man can always add a bit of sprezzatura by throwing in a unique pocket square, or cufflinks, or even socks if it means that much. That said, I am from a part of the world where the term "suit" is akin to "straightjacket" and most men would happily show up in a black t-shirt and jeans to any affair, including weddings, funerals, or the dubbing ceremony of their son by the King of England. I sometimes wonder if this is why I left. It's probably part of it.
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Nah, the high status dress in most big cities is neutrals. Just open up an Eileen Fisher or Everlane catalogue.
You're entitled to like black tie (obviously), but it's decidedly a feature of modernity. Acting as if it's a rebellion against it is totally incoherent. People did not dress in black and white until comparatively recently.
People didn’t dress in t-shirts until comparatively recently. And I think you’re being a little unfair: yes, a lot of people dress in neutrals and shades, but the vibe of a bunch of people in thirty shades of tan/beige/blue/black quarter zips and slacks of various colors, or generic women’s office wear, still isn’t as coherent or visually impressive as outfit consistency is. It’s still a huge, varied cacophony of cuts, fits, shapes and colors, even if neon green and pink are rare (although not as rare as you seem to be suggesting, at least in high fashion or in events where people are really showing off).
Of course black tie is modern, it only replaced white tie less than a century ago, and even that wasn’t very old at that time. I don’t like it because it’s old, I like it because it’s coherent and because it’s a uniform. A dress code is a rebellion against (recent) [post, if you insist]modernity, where the increasing casualization of business dress, dinner dress, theater dress, party dress and every other kind of dress code is perhaps the single most notable trend in fashion. If I could enforce white tie or morning suits (both, depending on time of day of each event) at my wedding I would, but alas, as an American, it would be considered unfair on my guests.
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