The London Lounge

All,

I have been invited to a central London event that starts at lunchtime and the dress code stipulates Black Tie, i.e evening dress. I thought this might make an interesting discussion?

The Empire is declining even faster than we knew.

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Maybe the event is in a casino, where there is no natural light and nighttime lasts forever?

Without giving away the invitee, it is from a very well respected and well known organisation at the pinnacle of the establishment.

I wonder why they want you to wear a dinner suit during a luncheon? Is it total ignorance or is the event an all day affair ending with dinner after dark and the requested attire some kind of compromise? When the RSVP I would give their protocol office a quick call and ask. If it's an organization at the pinnacle of the establishment, as you say, I'm sure they have a rather competent head of protocol/external relations.
If I felt obliged to attend during the daytime, I would wear a dark suit with a silver four-in-hand.

If they get enough calls, perhaps they will say "we goofed-- we meant 'formal', and not evening wear."

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hectorm wrote:I wonder why they want you to wear a dinner suit during a luncheon? Is it total ignorance or is the event an all day affair ending with dinner after dark and the requested attire some kind of compromise? When the RSVP I would give their protocol office a quick call and ask. If it's an organization at the pinnacle of the establishment, as you say, I'm sure they have a rather competent head of protocol/external relations.
If I felt obliged to attend during the daytime, I would wear a dark suit with a silver four-in-hand.

The event ends before six. It is the kind of thing that would normally take place in the evening, I.e. Dining, prizes, guest speaker. The polite thing would be to simply do as told, but I thought it would make for an interesting discussion nevertheless.

Arch, You are right, an interesting discussion. Perhaps they meant to say "black lounge" i.e. stroller or semi-formal day wear. Would you not be fortunate if such were the case? I would ask. If the answer is indeed black tie, then wear your dinner jacket and have a great time.

Perhaps they were less concerned with the niceties of the moment, and more with the photographs that would be circulated afterward.

Dear Concordia,

I strongly suspect you are correct. When published, it will appear as is everyone was enjoying a great evening out. In any case, it is an all too rare excuse to dust down the dinner jacket.

arch wrote:All,

I have been invited to a central London event that starts at lunchtime and the dress code stipulates Black Tie, i.e evening dress. I thought this might make an interesting discussion?

Dear Arch,

the polite way to respond to their evident mishap would be telling them that your black tie is unfortunately with the tailor for alteration. You are checking whether formal day wear would be acceptable, given the timing of the event.

Cheers, David

Yes! If I owned formal day wear, that is. Apart from Mr Benn and the masons, it is almost extinct, a caricature of a professional gent.

If you consider that in former times, and sometimes today, white tie is worn as ceremonial dress during the day, a downgrading of levels means that its place is now taken up by black tie.