Morning Coat Colour

[BGE]

A comment by Manself in the Black Blazer/Odd Jacket thread viewforum.php?f=4 has piqued my interest in the possibility of a morning coat in some sort of dark blue.

In a fairly recent visit to the tailors, I happened to look through the Harrisons P&B universal book in search for some formal fabrics for a dinner suit, and noted some lovely, and very dark navy blues and midnight blues that are close to indistinguishable from black. Now I'm aware that the guidelines for daytime formalwear call for strictly black, or oxford grey with regards to morning coats—but I'm wondering about the possibilities of a dark, dark, blue that's almost black, made into a cutaway coat, and it's potential for elegance.

For the curious, I'm thinking of 74149, or 74150

Your thoughts?

[couch]

Not morning dress, and I'm not qualified to opine on suitability, but I'll repost this picture of Bullingdon Club dress tails as a visual reference for how the color looks in a formal coat in daylight (fellow on the left):



You can contrast the effect with the two gents immediately behind him in black dress coats.

[Costi]

Evening dress (black / white tie) in midnight blue supposedly looks darker than black under artificial light. Some of this is considered to be legend, but mostly due to misunderstanding the meaning of "darker than black": it is about the hues put into evidence by artificial light.
What would a day coat's alibi be for being MIDNIGHT blue?

[cdo]

For me, it had never occurred to me to choose anything else other than black herringbone - it's classic, understated and I can forget about the appropriateness of my dresswear and simply enjoy the event. What are your choices for the trousers (striped or matching?) and waistcoat (different colour or matching?). A midnight blue morning coat with traditional grey/black striped trousers will look somewhat strange, no? And any colour waistcoat goes with black but not so sure about midnight blue under direct sunlight.

If you are passing by Gieves in Savile Row, there is a lovely midnight blue evening tailcoat cut by Ms Sargent in the shop window. In direct sunlight, it clearly looks blue not 'darker than black'. I'll try and remember to get a photo this week when I see my tailor.

- C

[BGE]

Evening dress (black / white tie) in midnight blue supposedly looks darker than black under artificial light. Some of this is considered to be legend, but mostly due to misunderstanding the meaning of "darker than black": it is about the hues put into evidence by artificial light.
What would a day coat's alibi be for being MIDNIGHT blue?

An apt way to frame it Costi, I can think of no alibi, except that I personally don't like the look of black for myself, though I think it works well for others. It appears such a curiosity would only take one into the land of affectation?

[Etutee]

To OP I would advise against using midnight blue because as pointed out earlier in this thread, you can easily tell its a shade of blue not black.
In so far as Oxford gray is concerned, as a matter of fact I was looking through various fabric books today and could not find a single trure oxford gray in lesser, harrisons, minnis/hardy etc

They all cary dark gray but thats like calling a dark navy a midhight blue.

If anyone knows of true oxford grays (95%+ black thread) in any reputable cloth please let me know.

[Costi]

I'll give you an alibi: you could claim you choose colours according to London time! Depending on your tone, others might think it an esoteric rule of elegant dress that applies outside Britain - like the Burma shade dinner coat
But you needn't resort to so much phantasy as you already have the answer: Oxford gray - or, as Italians call it, "fumo di Londra", recalling the early days of industrialization, but which is, in fact, more actual than ever. You might have fun watching Alberto Sordi's homonimous movie, it gives one an interesting idea of how much dress expresses a culture, so much that one may be tempted to substitute one for the other.

[ay329]

I have come across the above mentioned P&B Universal Dark Navy cloths and found they look blue during the day

As to Couch's picture, its nice to see men wearing evening tails (white tie) during the day...as I find the entire evening tails dress to be more elegant than formal daywear.

[Costi]

I suppose it is conventionally evening in that picture, even though sundown occurs after six during the summer months.

[cdo]

Here are a couple of photos of the midnight blue evening tailcoat in the Gieves shop window.




Unfortunately, the strong reflection of the opposite building in the glass window obscures some of the detail of the coat. Nonetheless, I think that it does look blue in sunlight (at the time, the day was quite overcast with grey clouds) especially when comparing the cloth against the silk facings and buttons.

BGE - If you are based in the UK, you could simply pop into a Moss Bros. hire store as they have morning coats in both black and midnight blue colours to try on.

- C