Getting a handle on tailored menswear requires familiarizing yourself with a fair bit of jargon, from vents and pleats to the difference between flannel and worsted wool. Before you get too deep into all of that, however, there are a few more essential questions to be answered. Among the most basic: What’s the difference between a suit and a tuxedo?
There are a few major distinctions between these two garments (and a bunch of minor ones as well), but equally important to what makes a tux a tux is its relative position to the other key species of tailored menswear. We’ve assembled the handy guide below, ordered from the humblest options to the fanciest, to help you navigate this terrain.
Sport Coat and Trousers
This ensemble may be at the bottom rung of the tailored menswear ladder, but that doesn’t mean it still can’t look polished if you do it right. Consisting of a tailored jacket (ideally one that’s not part of a suit) and non-matching pants, the sport coat and trousers combo can do you right in a wide array of formal and semi-formal settings, from weekdays at the office to dinner out at a nicer restaurant. From there, aside from ensuring that your jacket and pants are tailored to a tee, you can tweak your look to suit the season and setting, from a jaunty madras jacket and white chinos to the always-elegant combo of a navy jacket and gray wool trousers.
Suit
The most basic definition of a suit—a jacket and trousers cut from the same fabric and made to be worn together—leaves a lot of room for interpretation. The good news is that as long as you’re adhering to the matching jacket and pants rule, a suit can be pretty much whatever you want it to be. Chore jacket and chinos cut from the same cotton twill? Sure. Technical blazer and pants in matching ripstop nylon? Pop off, king. But just because something is technically a suit, doesn’t mean it’s going to be the right vibe for a job interview, a wedding, or a funeral. That’s part of the reason the vast majority of suits are made from wool-based fabrics in muted hues like navy blue, charcoal gray, and black. When in doubt, your best bet is a single-breasted jacket with two or three buttons, and matching pants in navy worsted wool.
Tuxedo
As the go-to outfit for formal events (and anything with a “black tie” dress code) for the last century, give or take, the basic elements of a tuxedo are pretty well established. Despite this rigidity, there’s still plenty of room for interpretation if you’re interested in going off-script. At its most classic, a tuxedo consists of a single-breasted black tuxedo jacket with a contrasting satin lapel—traditionally either a peak or shawl—and a pair of matching black pants with a satin stripe down each leg. Throw in a crisp white shirt, a black bowtie, and a pair of well-polished black Oxfords and you’ll be in good shape. If you’re interested in doing something a little more outré, you can opt for midnight blue instead of black, double-breasted instead of single, or a straight black tie instead of a bow. For an even more advanced move, you can opt for a dinner jacket, which is essentially a tuxedo jacket in a contrasting fabric like white linen or jewel-toned velvet.
Full Evening Dress Suit
Situated at the very tippy top of the tailored menswear pyramid, the full evening dress suit is the most formal member of the fam, and the required getup for a “white tie” dress code. In centuries past, the white tie ensemble used to be more de rigeur for fancy evening events, but it has since been superseded by the relative accessibility of the tuxedo. The distinguishing features include a black cutaway tailcoat, high-waisted trousers with a satin stripe down each leg, a white waistcoat, and a starched white shirt with a wing collar. It also dictates a set of opera pumps on your feet, (a.k.a. little shiny black slip-ons with cute little satin bows), and a top hat.
