The London Lounge

One of our/my MTM customers asked me a question I could not answer.
He asked me about how a smoking jacket is buttoned when being a guest or the host.
Reason for this question was the fact that his uncle(a german bespoke tailor) told him there is a rule when to close the jacket in this way: Edges of the jacket are held together by 2 buttons connected with a long shank (0---0), or the usual way, left edge over the right edge( Io- ).
Unfortunately he could not remember precisely so he asked me. I could not answer the question, so I asked my older colleagues, but they could not answer either!

And now I am asking you:
Is there a difference in buttoning a smoking jacket when you are either the host or a guest?


Thanks in advance,

D. Koch

The English dinner jacket (a.k.a. the Tuxedo jacket among many Americans) could be called a smoking jacket on the European continent, but I believe you do not mean to refer to the standard dinner jacket, of course.

For the English, I have discovered there is not only the Smoking Jacket, but a variety of the English dinner jacket not to be confused with the English Smoking Jacket.

The ventless English Smoking Jacket is supposed to be made of velvet (typically bottle green,burgundy, or dark blue). It has a shawl collar, a chest pocket, two side waist pockets and folded-back wrist cuffs. The tops of the pockets (all three of which were patched pockets, with bordered top margins), the collar and the wrist cuffs are usually of the same silk brocade that extends into the inside edge of the jacket. Further inside, the rest of the interior of the jacket is covered by a silk lining with yet another pattern or which is plain. The left and right front sides of the Smoking Jacket have a pair of frog closures (something like a pair of Chinese knots; one end has a ring which slips over the rounded ball end of the other to provide closure. I am not sure if it should be typical, but classical drawings of early 20th Century American Smoking Jackets have pretty high frog closures.

The English Smoking Jacket was worn when a gentleman upon reaching home decided to relax in his library, perhaps reading something light and to enjoy a glass of whatever.
The Smoking Jacket bore the brunt of the pollution caused by the smoking of the tobacco pipe, so that when dinner was ready, a fresh dinner jacket was then worn in its place.

As for the variety of the English dinner jacket that is typically confused with the English Smoking Jacket, it seems that the sartorially correct court dress, formal and semi-formal jackets, including the English dinner jacket had to be black for the many decades of Queen Victoria's reign upon the death of her beloved consort, Prince Albert. But inside of an Englishman's castle (a.k.a., his home) and his club, if he was the host of an informal gathering, he was entitled to dress himself in an exotic colourful variety of the English dinner jacket that was not black or midnight blue, and of velvet with silk lapels. Basically, the structure of this jacket is similar to the normal English Dinner Jacket.

Yes, the English dinner jacket (and therefore that exotically coloured variety also) is supposed to be either closed with a pair of link buttons (something similar to what your client described, Sir), or just one button for a single-breasted jacket. All buttons of a dinner jacket are silk or cloth covered, just like those for formal and other semi-formal wear.

As for the guest, I am unable to provide an answer with regard to club wear, but he was supposed to wear the standard sartorially-correct colour (i.e., black or midnight blue) for his dinner jacket when he had dinner at his host's home. I am also unable to provide an answer as to whether he can wear a smoking jacket in his hosts' home library! Maybe his host had the duty to provide such smoking jackets, just as slippers should be provided if he requires his guests to take off their footwear within his house or its upstairs.

Thank you very much for this very informative reply, Happy Stroller!
What is called Smoking in Germany is the Tuxedo type of suit.
The real smoking jacket is called Haus- or Rauchjacke and looks very much like your description:



The jacket of a smoking has only 2 possibilities or variations of buttoning:



and this:



I don't think it matters which way a jacket is buttoned when guest or host, maybe my customer got the remarks of his uncle a bit wrong.
But maybe somebody else does know more about it.

Here is a pattern for the "Rauchjacke":




SG

Thank you, Sir, for your new images, which were quite enlightening.

It seems the German house jackets are equivalent to the British smoking jackets, while the German smoking jackets are equivalent to the American tuxedos (a.k.a., British dinner jackets). The word "house jacket" seems very appropriate for the special dinner jacket that an English host could wear in place of the standard black or midnight blue dinner jacket. Unfortunately, as you point out, it refers to the real smoking jacket.

I did mentioned that the American smoking jackets had only one frog closure that was set very high. They looked different from the German version of the real smoking jacket, which shows 3 frog closures in the image you have kindly provided. I suppose a bespoke smoking jacket could have several frog closures, while the one which is provided by a host to his guests would be similar to the American style smoking jacket which I described. The host, who is unsure of the particular body measurements of his guests, would find it wise to procure several smoking jackets with single frog closures just above the abdomen for his guests. But being neither English nor American, I regret I myself am merely speculating.

BTW, I have just commissioned a real smoking jacket with genuine silk fillings. The silk fillings are the original "bags" of silk which are unwound from the silk cocoon. Perhaps I should have asked that the silk filling be put into a special inner jacket that can be attached to the outer jacket by the use of zippers, but in the rush to order my jacket, I overlooked that detail. Nevertheless, at the very least, the smoking jacket should keep me real warm in a house that has no heating equipment during the cold Winter nights.

The essential Black Tie Guide says that a closure like this is called frog-closure and is borrowed from the original smoking jacket (i.e. Haus- oder Rauchjacke). That would mean that this type of closure is less formal and more appropriate for the host.

As a precaution: A (black) "dinner jacket" (BE) is a "tuxedo" (AE) is a "Smoking" (DE), whereas a "Dinner Jacket" (DE) is a white "dinner jacket" (BE).