For My Friend Bill

I have plowed, desperately, around and around the internet, to find a pic somewhere, of the absolutely correct formation of the tuxedo protocol actually on someone.

There are one or two - not more than that - photographs which are indistinct in key sections, and which could possibly show someone wearing a tuxedo correctly, or, that is to say, the absolutely totally correct form of this particular attire; but as I say, these photos are indistinct and may not in reality be the real thing. Samuel L. Jackson has a photo that is perfect as long as one concedes those areas that are not distinct in the pic itself. But otherwise, his tie, his lack of collar gap, and a range of other elements, are all perfect.

Completely perfect tuxedo style

And this is quite at a distance from what has become commonplace now.

Not even Connery's Bond ever fully complied with tuxedo etiquette at its absolute peak of ordinary formal tradition. His beautiful white jacket iteration is totally acceptable but it is a form of 'sea rig' evening dress, meant for hotter climates, and not exactly a standard tuxedo.

If you ever consulted those 'style guides' you will come across this kind of phrase: 'usually there are no side-pockets but if you have them...' What is this 'but if you...' thing all the time? ...How about just don't.

And so, rather surprisingly, you could think, the one person who carried it off as close to complete perfection as is required by the etiquette, was Pierce Brosnan!

You like this, Billy, Billy, Billy-Baru...?
(Paraphrasing Ted Knight in 'Caddyshack').

He wears the correct attire, of: off-white or ice-white shirt with placket-covered buttons, no side pockets on the jacket, no vents, peak lapels, grosgrain SQUARE EDGED bow-tie, proper french cuffs, jacket single-buttoned in front. And on one occasion he wore the birds-eye buttoned shirt version. One stripe 'galon' down the sides of the trousers. Black patent pumps. 

All correct. 

Nothing else is 'correct.'

And there are significant reasons why someone of genuine breeding and class must adhere to the virtues of the absolutely conventional, strict traditional format, for wearing a tuxedo.

...I have to run along in a second to go to a show in the city, and so, I shall pick this all up after a few hours, and revisit things and complete this little post. For now, remember the old adage. You know, any old adage.

: )
  
Okay anyway, so now I'm back...

So what's the point of 'tuxedo etiquette?' The tuxedo was invented by Griswold Lorillard - now don't let anyone pretend things are otherwise! The story they trot out now about James Potter is a fabrication designed to cover up a social indiscretion, which we cannot go into here - and even though I have made a habit recently of committing the crime of revealing state secrets, I shall stop at revealing the promiscuous incidents to do with, or the habits of, members of authentic society. Anyway, Potter's ex-wife Cora Brown, became a famous actress who played the Comtesse De Winter on stage in The Three Musketeers.

The Lorillards were not only moguls of tobacco, but the younger Lorillard brothers were among the two or three really large tea merchants in the United States at the time, owning at least 40 ships at sea transporting tea. Consequently, the Lorillards were personally known to one of my own ancestors, a certainly particular lady, who owned the largest, and the fastest clippers ever to sail; ever. Her half-sister was the very famous Princesse de Caraman Chimay, Clara Ward.

A gown by Worth, owned by the sister of Clara Ward

Now there is a great secret about tuxedo etiquette, and no amount of purchasing of mansions on Lake Como next to the actor George Clooney, will ever give one access to such inner knowledge. 

So yes you can fiddle around with exact specifications for tuxedo etiquette, but don't do it.
  
Tuxedos are not about conformity or conservatism at all - after all, they were a departure from the standards of the day when they were first shown. And the fact that we maintain the exact same specifications to correctly wear (Elizabeth Barrett Browning split infinitives often, so shall I) tuxedos even now, has nothing to do with conformity or having a conservative mentality necessarily.

You can go surfing all you like, disporting your buff torso to all the eligible ladies to your heart's content. And they say that attending a British Public School attaches an automatic brand of status and supposed class to a young person. But this is the very soul and meaning of the nouveau riche -  for neither are these people from actual aristocratic society when there really was such a thing in Great Britain, nor are they honest about the sources of what appears to be 'their money' now, and certainly, these are the strata who have absolutely no clue at all about why men of genuine substance and worth stick to exact specifications when donning the attire known as 'the tuxedo.' Sven Raphael Schneider the style guru goes around the bull's eye closest of anyone, but even he refrains from publicly going deeply into the real lore of it.