Formal wear
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Formal wear or full dress is the
The
Formal wear being the most formal dress code, it is followed by
Since the most formal versions of national costumes are typically permitted as supplementary alternatives to the uniformity of Western formal dress codes, conversely, since most cultures have at least intuitively applied some equivalent level of formality, the versatile framework of Western formal dress codes open to amalgamation of international and local customs have influenced its competitiveness as international standard. From these social conventions derive in turn also the variants worn on related occasions of varying solemnity, such as formal
History
Clothing norms and fashions fluctuated regionally in the Middle Ages.
More widespread conventions emerged around
By the
By the 1820s, the dress coat was replaced as formal day wear by the dark, closed-front knee-length frock coat. However, the dress coat from the transition period was maintained as formal evening wear in the form of white tie, remaining so until this day.
By the 1840s, the first cutaway
Likewise, starting from the 1860s, fashion evolved to gradually introduce the more sportive, shorter suit jacket, likewise originating in country leisure wear. This evolved into the semi-formal evening wear black tie from the 1880s and the informal wear suit accepted by polite society from the 1920s.
Dress codes
The dress codes counted as formal wear are the formal dress codes of
The clothes dictated by these dress codes for women are ball gowns. For many uniforms, the official clothing is unisex. Examples of this are court dress, academic dress, and military full dress uniform.
Morning dress
Morning dress is the daytime formal
White tie
The required clothing for men, in the evening, is roughly the following:
- Formal trousers, uncuffed, with stripes on leg seams
- White piqué front or plain stiff-fronted shirt studs
- White piqué bow tie
- White piqué
- A (dress coat) evening tailcoat[2]
- Black court shoes
- Accessories
Women wear a variety of dresses. See ball gowns, evening gowns, and wedding dresses. Business attire for women has a developmental history of its own and generally looks different from formal dress for social occasions.
Supplementary alternatives
Many invitations to white tie events, like the last published edition of the British Lord Chamberlain's Guide to Dress at Court, explicitly state that national costume or national dress may be substituted for white tie.[3][4]
In general, each of the supplementary alternatives applies equally for both day attire, and evening attire.
Ceremonial dress
Including court dresses, diplomatic uniforms, and academic dresses.
Full dress uniform
Prior to
In the U.S. Army,
Religious clothing
Certain clergy wear, in place of white tie outfits, a cassock with ferraiolone, which is a light-weight ankle-length cape intended to be worn indoors. The colour and fabric of the ferraiolone is determined by the rank of the cleric and can be scarlet watered silk, purple silk, black silk or black wool. For outerwear, the black cape (cappa nigra), also known as a choir cape (cappa choralis), is most traditional. It is a long black woolen cloak fastened with a clasp at the neck and often has a hood. Cardinals and bishops may also wear a black plush hat or, less formally, a biretta. In practice, the cassock and especially the ferraiolone have become much less common and no particular formal attire has appeared to replace them. The most formal alternative is a clerical waistcoat incorporating a Roman collar (a rabat) worn with a collarless French cuff shirt and a black suit, although this is closer to black-tie than white tie.
Historically, clerics in the Church of England would wear a knee-length cassock called an apron, accompanied by a tailcoat with silk facings but no lapels, for a white tie occasion. In modern times this is rarely seen. However, if worn, the knee-length cassock is now replaced with normal dress trousers.
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First nativeCatholic parish priest from the Belgian Congo, wearing a Roman cassockwith the standard 18 buttons (Gazet van Antwerpen, 2 September 1906)
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Catholic Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone wearing a tropical white cassock trimmed in cardinalatial scarlet in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic(2006)
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Pope Benedict XVI in white cassock (sometimes though unofficially called a simar) with pellegrina and fringed white fascia (2007)
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Bartholomew I in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem(2014)
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Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, and Kim Geun-Sang, Anglican Primate of the Anglican Church of Korea(2013)
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Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar of Jerusalem, Israel (right) with Jewish scholar Joseph J. Sherman (left) (2014)
Cultural dress
In Western formal state ceremonies and social functions, diplomats, foreign dignitaries, and guests of honour wear a Western formal dress if not wearing their own national dress.
Many cultures have a formal day and evening dress, for example:
- Av Pak — both traditional and modern embroidered blouse worn by women in Cambodia for special occasions and traditional festivals
- Bandhgala — also called Jodhpuri suit, worn by men in India, is a traditional dress
- Barong Tagalog— worn by men in the Philippines
- and others)
- Batik shirt — worn by men and women in Indonesia. Besides counting as formal wear, batik shirts are worn well into the informal level.
- Bunad — worn as formal dress by women and men in Norway
- qipao, which originated during the Qing dynasty. It can be of cotton for ordinary wear, or of silk for those within aristocratic families. Beneath the changshan, the man generally wears a white mandarin-collar long-sleeved shirt and a pair of dark-colored long pants. Like the qipao, this changshan male gown has slits on both sides (at least knee level) as well. Worn either by Chinese men in the martial arts world or as attire for weddings to match the qipao the bride wears. The qipao and changshan originated as Manchu dresses which government officials, but not ordinary civilians, were required to wear under the Qing dynasty's laws. Gradually, the general Han Chinese civilian population shifted from wearing traditional Chinese hanfuclothing to the qipao and changshan.
- Cheongsam — a modern female variation of the Qing dynasty silk dress, characterized by a high mandarin collar and side slits of varying lengths. It can be sleeveless, short-sleeved, elbow-length or long-sleeved, and has been adopted by most Chinese women as Chinese wear, depending on materials and occasions.
- Daura-Suruwal — worn as formal dress by men in Nepal
- Dashiki — worn by men in West African countries
- Dhoti — worn by men in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, the Maldives, and Tamil men in Sri Lanka
- Folkdräkt — worn as formal dress by women and men in Sweden
- state dinnersand weddings
- Hanbok — worn by both men and women in Korea
- Highland dress with Scottish kilt — worn as formal dress by men in Scotland or of Scottish descent
- Kebaya — worn by women in Malaysia and Indonesia
- People's Republic of China
- Sari — worn by women in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka
- Shalwar kameez — worn by both men and women in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh
- Sherwani worn by men in India and Pakistan
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An Icelandic man wears thehátíðarbúningur formal dress on his wedding day along with a boutonnière.
-
Arabformal dress
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Indian Prime Ministerbandhgala along with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe
Frock coat
Although ceased as a protocol-regulated required formal attire at the
The state funeral of Winston Churchill in 1965 included bearers of frock coats.[7]
To this day, King Tupou VI of Tonga (born 1959) has been a frequent wearer of frock coats at formal occasions.
Also more recent fashion has been inspired by frock coats: Prada's autumn editions of 2012,[8] Alexander McQueen's menswear in the autumn of 2017,[9] and Paul Smith's autumn 2018.[10]
Gallery
Morning dress
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Morning dress in 1901
-
Sir (1931)
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Gustav Adolf, Prince Eugen and Yngve Larsson at the inauguration of Skogskyrkogården, Stockholm, Sweden(1940)
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FormerHarry Truman with William Lyon Mackenzie King(1947)
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Men in morning dress and women inwedding gownsat a wedding (1929)
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wedding gown, outdoors (1953)
White tie
-
Caricature ofVanity Fair(1899)
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Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in evening white tie formal wear (1925)
-
Prince Philip (full dress uniform) before the formal (full dress) opening of the Parliament of Canada (1957), surrounded by participators of varying degrees of formal attire (morning dress, white tieetc.), presumably in accordance with their functions or time of arrival and departure
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Empress Nagako(the men in white tie) during a state dinner (1975)
-
inauguration day(30 April 2013)
See also
- Ceremonial dress
- Morning dress
- White tie
- Western dress codes
- Suit
- Informal wear
- Semi-formal wear
- Casual wear
References
- ^ "Vintage Evening Waistcoats & Cummerbunds". 3 December 2018.
- ^ "White Tie Evening Tailcoat & Trousers (Dress Suit)". www.gentlemansgazette.com. December 7, 2018.
- ^ Canadian Heritage (1985). "Dress". "Diplomatic and Consular Relations and Protocol" External Affairs. Archived from the original on 2013-06-28. Retrieved 2008-11-09.
- ^ Nobleprize.org. "The Dress Code at the Nobel Banquet: What to wear?".
- ^ Knötel, Knötel & Sieg (1980), pp. 442–445.
- ^ a b "Guide to the Wear and Appearance of Army Uniforms and Insignia" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-04-21. Retrieved 2019-01-10.
- ^ "THE STATE FUNERAL OF SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL (NEWS IN COLOUR) - COLOUR IS VERY GOOD" – via www.youtube.com.
- ^ "Prada Autumn/Winter 2012 Menswear". Archived from the original on 2018-12-02. Retrieved 2018-12-01.
- ^ "frock coat | Fashion History Timeline". fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu.
- ^ "Paul Smith Fall 2018 Menswear Fashion Show".
Works cited
- Knötel, Richard; Knötel, Herbert; Sieg, Herbert (1980). Uniforms of the World: A Compendium of Army, Navy, and Air Force Uniforms, 1700–1937. New York: Scribner. ISBN 978-0-684-16304-8. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
External links
- Media related to Formal clothing at Wikimedia Commons