Men’s formalwear is becoming jazzier off the red carpet, too

In his ABC of Men’s Fashion, published in 1964, the designer Hardy Amies wrote, “all variance from the normal, in what after all is a very formal style of dressing, should be used with great care.” He was talking about the dinner suit — the 150-year-old staple of men’s festive dressing. Skip forward to the present, though, and Amies would have doubtless raised an eyebrow at some of the black tie looks seen on the red carpet this year.

Oscar Isaac rocked a Thom Browne dress that mimicked a formal tailcoat to the Met Gala, Michael B Jordan chose a glitzy metallic tuxedo for the Vanity Fair Oscars party, Simu Liu wore a loud crimson suit and bow tie to the Oscars, and Timothée Chalamet caused a stir by eschewing the dinner suit entirely, instead wearing a jewel-encrusted Louis Vuitton jacket open over his bare chest. These were headline-grabbing choices, but also begged the question: are we entering into a new era for what menswear’s most traditional dress code, black tie, can be?

It certainly looks that way. “I think there’s been a really big change in men and what they’re willing to wear now. Even during the pandemic, we were selling some really creative evening jackets, people were really drawn to them,” says Norbert Stumpfl, creative director of Italian tailoring thoroughbred Brioni. “Finally, there’s a lot more openness, a lot more individuality. It’s fun for us because we’ve always had very beautiful classic tuxedos, but now we get to offer them in a new way.”

You can see this in Brioni’s current collection. Eveningwear looks range from high-shine satin tuxedos with block-colour shirts and bow ties to match, through to an evening jacket embellished with 900 pieces of polished silver metal. “They’re all hammered and applied by hand, it’s a technique from Florence,” Stumpfl explains. This newfound freedom is echoed by designer brands across the market, from Tom Ford’s maximalist velvet jackets to Brunello Cucinelli’s dinner suits in navy blue corduroy.

Clients want to go out and have a good time, and they want to look like they’re having a good time too

To Simon Crompton, author and founder of menswear journal Permanent Style, black tie used to be about conformity, and now is increasingly about self-expression. “Basic black tie doesn’t feel exciting,” he says. “You’ve got to mix something with it that feels more personal.” While he doesn’t think many men are taking cues from the red carpet, “the fact you see celebrities like Chalamet and others experimenting makes it feel like it’s a more acceptable thing to do,” he adds.

At Favourbrook, a boutique on Pall Mall that specialises in morning dress and black tie, designer Oliver Spencer has also seen customers make braver choices over the last two or three years. “Clients want to go out and have a good time, and they want to look like they’re having a good time too,” he says.

To Spencer, this means fewer classic black or midnight blue wool dinner suits, and more bold silk jacquard or velvet smoking jackets, “navy [velvet jackets] have come pretty close to being the norm,” as well as oversized bow ties in different coloured silks and velvets. Clients are even experimenting with the colours and fabrications of their pleated dress shirts. “Swap your white dress shirt for ivory, pale blue or pink,” Spencer suggests. “I think the chicest colour you can choose is cream. If you’re thinking about wearing a white dress shirt,” he emphasises, “please just choose cream instead.”

The trick to building your own creative black-tie look, according to Hollywood stylist George Cortina, is to experiment very gently with the dress code’s conventions. “You can push those boundaries, so long as it feels good,” he says. “But stay within the realms of classicism. This isn’t about mad inventions with three sleeves.”

It was Cortina who famously put Daniel Craig in his bespoke Anderson & Sheppard pink velvet double-breasted jacket for the London premiere of No Time To Die in September of last year, which observed many of the classic dinner jacket’s conventions (peak lapels, covered buttons and jetted pockets) while playing with a fun colour. It provoked polarised reactions from the press, the public and at office water coolers up and down the country.

Regardless, Cortina says hot pink velvet was perfect for the moment. “Bond is always in black; we wanted to do something different. Daniel was the right person for that look. He’s 52 years old and he’s very sexy. He had the maturity for it . . . If I put that on the likes of Harry Styles, it wouldn’t have had the same appeal.”

To singer Jacob Lusk, one of 2022’s foremost champions of the dinner suit, the joy of a tuxedo is not in its status as a reliable evening uniform, but that it’s a sartorial canvas to build upon and explore. The frontman of up-and-coming soul and R&B trio Gabriels — who released their debut album in September and wrapped a sellout UK tour in November — makes a point of performing in immaculately styled black tie.

“No shade to anyone else, but some performers don’t go the extra mile for their audience,” he says, dialling in from his home in LA. “To think these people have gotten on the train, they’ve stood in a queue outside, then waited inside for another hour to see you, you need to let them know that you’re here for them and really take this seriously. I feel like the tuxedo is the ultimate sign of respect . . . It’s a sign that I am giving you my absolute best.”

Lusk’s single-breasted, one-button dinner suit is pitch perfect, but where his outfits really shine is in the addition of luxurious, floor-length silk robes over the top, inspired by the late André Leon Talley. “He used to wear what they called court coats,” Lusk explains. “I was like, how can I adopt some of this for myself, and have people feel like they’re stepping into a different world?” From bright scarlet to jade green, Lusk’s silk brocade robes elevate his black-tie look from restrained classicism to soul diva chic.

Silk gowns and brightly coloured velvets might sound like extreme departures from over 150 years of convention (and certainly aren’t in the spirit of Amies’ advice), but that’s the point. “I want to be myself,” Lusk adds. “When I decided to wear a tux, I was like, ‘how can I bring that timeless elegance to the present and still be me?’ I’m not trying to be like anyone else.” Gone are the days of blending into a room full of black suits. Now, finally, there’s scope to stand out.

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