=FORMAL EVENING CLOTHES=

Your full dress is the last thing to economize on.  It must be perfect in fit, cut and material, and this means a first-rate tailor.  It must be made of a dull-faced worsted, either black or night blue, on no account of broadcloth.  Aside from satin facing and collar, which can have lapels or be cut shawl-shaped, and wide braid on the trousers, it must have no trimming whatever.  Avoid satin or velvet cuffs, moire neck ribbons and fancy coat buttons as you would the plague.

Wear a plain white linen waistcoat, not one of cream colored silk, or figured or even black brocade.  Have all your linen faultlessly clean—­always—­and your tie of plain white lawn, tied so it will not only stay in place but look as though nothing short of a backward somersault could disarrange it.

Your handkerchief must be white; gloves (at opera or ball) white; flower in buttonhole (if any) white.  If you are a normal size, you can in America buy inexpensive shirts, and white waistcoats that are above reproach, but if you are abnormally tall or otherwise an “out size” so that everything has to be “made to order,” you will have to pay anywhere from double to four times as much for each article you put on.

When you go out on the street, wear an English silk hat, not one of the taper crowned variety popular in the “movies.”  And wear it on your head, not on the back of your neck.  Have your overcoat of plain black or dark blue material, for you must wear an overcoat with full dress even in summer.  Use a plain white or black and white muffler.  Colored ones are impossible.  Wear white buckskin gloves if you can afford them; otherwise gray or khaki doeskin, and leave them in your overcoat pocket.  Your stick should be of plain Malacca or other wood, with either a crooked or straight handle.  The only ornamentation allowable is a plain silver or gold band, or top; but perfectly plain is best form.

And lastly, wear patent leather pumps, shoes or ties, and plain black silk socks, and leave your rubbers—­if you must wear them, in the coat room.

=THE TUXEDO=

The Tuxedo, which is the essential evening dress of a gentleman, is simply the English dinner coat.  It was first introduced in this country at the Tuxedo Club to provide something less formal than the swallow-tail, and the name has clung ever since.  To a man who can not afford to get two suits of evening clothes, the Tuxedo is of greater importance.  It is worn every evening and nearly everywhere, whereas the tail coat is necessary only at balls, formal dinners, and in a box at the opera.  Tuxedo clothes are made of the same materials and differ from full dress ones in only three particulars:  the cut of the coat, the braid on the trousers, and the use of a black tie instead of a white one.  The dinner coat has no tails and is cut like a sack suit except that it is held closed in front by one button at the waist line. (A full dress coat, naturally, hangs open.) The lapels are satin faced, and the collar left in cloth, or if it is shawl-shaped the whole collar is of satin.