Commencement Ball Clothing

[icedoverfire]

Hi gents,

I'd like your opinion.

I went to this last year when the SO graduated, and most people weren't wearing tuxedos or anything like that - in fact, such is seen as overkill. Most were wearing shirts, slacks, and ties.

She is wearing a black dress with gold accents.

I have three choices of long-sleeve button down shirt:

One in this color: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arylide_Yellow (See box at right hand side of page) - leaning toward this one because it's a little bit different than most.

One is plain white.

One is white with black pinstripes running vertically.

Black slacks, tie, and shoes, obviously.

Thoughts?

- ice

 

[The Nid Hog]

Is this for high school? If that's the way people are dressing, wear the white shirt. You can never go wrong with that. Personally, I'd at least wear a suit. Give the place a little class. With just a shirt and tie, you run the risk of someone asking you about the special of the day.

 

[icedoverfire]

No it's my college's commencement ball.... I'm not bringing a jacket with me because I feel like most people will remove the jacket once inside, and it's going to be a very warm evening besides.

- ice

 

[thebikingengineer]

Wear an unlined blazer. I find that people wearing a dress shirt, tie, and slacks to a ball come off as looking amateurish. An unlined cotton blazer in a dark color of some sort won't leave you sweating and will make you look put together. White shirt would make sense provided it's a nighttime event. Also, if you're wearing a dark blazer go with lighter pants, black pants and a navy blazer (for example) would look bad. A blazer and khakis is always a sharp look and would let you wear a lighter fabric in the pants.

 

[Jim]

Ice
There are a lot of guys reading this and shaking there heads right now. I will take a stab at it.

Wear a blazer- its the baseline that you work up from. Any event that requires a tie should have a blazer attached to it at the minimum.

At any event, invariably someone will be under dressed, your goal should be- never be him

You dates dress- is it a gown? have you seen the invitation?

 

[DSB]

Ice
There are a lot of guys reading this and shaking there heads right now. I will take a stab at it.

Wear a blazer- its the baseline that you work up from. Any event that requires a tie should have a blazer attached to it at the minimum.

At any event, invariably someone will be under dressed, your goal should be- never be him

You dates dress- is it a gown? have you seen the invitation?

I agree with Jim's advice (and I'm trying not to shake my head as I mutter about the degradation of societal dress codes ). My feeling is that one should never wear a tie to an event without a jacket. If a tie is appropriate, then a jacket is required. A blazer with slacks is the minimum, and a suit may be more appropriate. It is always better to be slightly over dressed than under dressed. You don't want to be part of the lowest common denominator.

I echo Jim's question: is your date wearing a gown? I suspect your date will be very disappointed if she's dressed to the nines, and you are dressed in khakis. This may be regional or age specific, but my personal feeling is that khakis are on the same par with jeans -- they are not dress attire.

If the invitation specifies the dress code, I would change my answer to whatever the invitation specifies.

Good luck, and have fun!

Oh, and tell those kids to get off my lawn!

 

[thebikingengineer]

I wouldn't necessarily write off khakis, some of them are quite well suited to relaxed dress code "formal" events. As long as they're a tailored style (as opposed to baggy cargo khakis or something) and the rest of your ensemble is sound (this of course means a jacket, dress shirt, and tie) you can be quite confident that you will not appear under-dressed, especially in the aforementioned environment.

Also, make sure everything is pressed (clean should go without saying), maybe throw some linen in your blazer pocket, you'll probably be the best dressed guy in there (which is, sadly, not very hard to do these days).

 

[pal]

Go with plain white. You should never try to match your dates colors no matter how much she pressures you. I have been there and done that and it just never looks good.