The 10 Commandments of the Tuxedo

There is a cruel paradox at the heart of dressing correctly for a fancy evening—or so it may seem, on the dance floor, when once again you find yourself tugging your cummerbund back to whatever you guess its proper place to be. In theory, the elegance of the tuxedo stems from its simplicity—it’s an ultimate classic, the one outfit you don’t mess around with. In practice, many men find the rules governing this suit and its accoutrements to be annoyingly complex and complexly annoying.

According to the most plausible origin story, the future King Edward VII ordered the ur-tux from the Savile Row house of Henry Poole, setting a trend followed by members of a grand country club outside Manhattan in Tuxedo, New York. Hey, man, listen: These aren’t just fun facts—if you understand this stuff correctly, you will take a major step toward eliminating evening-suit stress. The very grounds for the existence of the garment was a man’s desire to chill out. Edward opted to wear a short black jacket for relaxed dinners at home precisely because he wanted to escape the fussy formality of a tail coat.