Dinner Clothes

A.N. Wilson: Young Fogey

You might be interested to know I recently acquired a new Brooks Brothers dinner suit with shawl lapels. Social occasions where such clothing can be worn have started appearing on my calendar with more frequency. Why not oblige and have a bit of fun? Below is an excerpt from one of Alan Flusser's books in which he discusses lapels on dinner jackets. Notch lapels, he says, are verboten, a directive ignored by our friend A.N. Wilson (at left) who appears to be wearing what I would guess is rented kit from Moss Bros. As a tall, robust-chested chap with a muscular physique, it would seem I have made the correct choice, at least according to Mr. Flusser. Now I can sleep at night, in pace, dreaming everlasting fogey dreams.

Only shawl or peaked lapels are used for dinner clothes. Peaked derives its heritage from the tailcoat, shawl from the smoking jacket. The shawl lapel produces a softer, old-world image and tends to be used on alternative dinner jackets such as the white summer dinner jacket, velvet smoking coat, or more idiosyncratic ones in wool tartan or cotton madras. Men with round faces or less muscular physiques generally look smarter in the uplifting, sharper-angled, pointed-end peaked lapel. Both lapels possess the sweep and self-importance that helps differentiate the black-tie coat from the less formal suit jacket.

Style and the Man, Alan Flusser (1996)