Origins of the Tuxedo

Lucy Knas
3 days ago
6 min read

With the Costume Institute’s upcoming exhibition, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, and corresponding Met Gala theme “Tailored for You,” there is no better time to dive into the history of modern menswear mainstay, and iconic black tie staple, the tuxedo. Today, we will uncover the origins of the garment from its conception to its rise to fame, and even the name itself. Buckle up because the terminology in this one gets confusing real fast—that said, I'll do my best to parse out the confounding and often contradictory terms of the world of menswear, and hopefully how and why the tuxedo became THE option for men’s formalwear.

The Smoking Jacket

In high school, I remember joking with one of my costume friends about the fact that a smoking jacket looks like a tuxedo and a robe had a baby—as it turns out, we weren't actually too far off. As a matter of fact, the smoking jacket lies just between the two—an evolution of the robe, and predecessor of the tuxedo. First seen in the 1850s, the smoking jacket was used to protect the wearer's clothing, and make them look fancy while doing it. According to The Gentlemen’s Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness (1860), “But if you smoke, or if you are in the company of smokers, and are to wear your clothes in the presence of ladies afterwards, you must change them to smoke in. A host who asks you to smoke, will generally offer you an old coat for the purpose.” Be it at a party or quiet evening at home, gentlemen would often retire to another room to smoke and relax after dinner, but they needed a way to protect their evening finery. Apart from the issue of smell, hot ash poses the risk of stain or damage to light colored and delicate fabrics. An old coat could be worn (as mentioned above), but for those who could afford it, the robe-de-chambre, an icon of opulence and comfort, was a popular option. The smoking jacket is essentially a shortened version of the robe-de-chambre made specifically for this purpose, it often featured thick, plush fabrics like velvet, and quilted flannels—these materials could stand up to the smoke and ash, and made for a comfortable and luxurious garment.

Fashion Plate No. 1, March 1873 from The West End Gazette of Gentlemen's Fashions, Vol. XI - 1873. The plate depicts (left) a velvet smoking jacket worn open, with quilted cuffs and roll collar, and (right) the longer robe-de-chambre in a paisley print, tied about the waist with tasseled sash (image courtesy of the gentleman's gazette). — **Fashion Plate No. 1, March 1873 from** ***The West End Gazette of Gentlemen's Fashions, Vol. XI*** **- 1873.** The plate depicts (left) a velvet smoking jacket worn open, with quilted cuffs and roll collar, and (right) the longer robe-de-chambre in a paisley print, tied about the waist with tasseled sash (image courtesy of the gentleman's gazette).

The Issue With Evening Wear

The suit we now know as the tuxedo (at least in the US) saw its origins in England in the mid–1860’s. At this point in time, men have daywear for every occasion, but in the evening, there are only two options: the highly formal dress coat (aka tailcoat), or the entirely informal smoking jacket (essentially fancy pajamas). For the average man, daywear could be used to fill the gap, but as dress etiquette became increasingly more precise, for the fashionable high-society gentleman, this gap in evening attire posed a serious problem. A tailcoat feels far too stuffy for a small dinner party with friends, but a lounge coat would be entirely inappropriate for anything but an evening cigar in the company of other men—and he wouldn’t possibly be caught in daytime attire after 6:00pm. What ever shall he do?! Enter the tuxedo jacket, or rather the dress sack, as it was known at the time. The style started out as an elevated version of the smoking jacket, but as its use became more widespread, it also picked up elements from other jackets popular at the time (see below) This blend of formal and informal made the dress sack the perfect choice for a relaxed gathering or casual night out on the town.

Illustration from British tailoring publication “The Tailor and Cutter,” July 1888. One of the earliest depictions of the dinner jackets in its modern form (image courtesy of Black Tie Guide)

Elements of the Early Dinner Jacket

Lapels - More relaxed roll collar of the smoking jacket; for a more formal touch, the peaked lapels of the tailcoat could also be used

Hemline - The shorter length of the sack coat or lounge coat (hitting around the low-hip or thigh high)

Fit - More tailored silhouette of the frock coat, but without the waistline seam

Materials - The fine wool fabric and silk faced lapels and finishings of the tailcoat; velvet is also a popular option

Closures - Earlier versions were worn open with no closure, but the single button and linked buttons seen in morning coats became popular

*Note: While the dress sack did incorporate elements from casual daywear, it was not to be worn during the day.

Rise to Popularity

Dress historians attribute the start of this fashion movement to the Prince of Wales in his search for semi-formal evening attire. In 1965, Prince Albert commissioned Henry Poole & Co to make for him a blue silk smoking jacket with matching trousers. While this garment was definitely more smoking jacket than anything else, it was the prototype for the early dinner jacket. In the following decades, the newfangled look would begin to gain traction with men in cities across england. By the 1990s the dress sack even made its way across the pond where it was adopted by the fashionable young men of Tuxedo Park in New York, and from there the garment became known as the tuxedo in the US.

Tuxedos for Women - Le Smoking & Yves Saint Laurent (YSL)

Believe it or not, YSL’s Le Smoking, released in 1966, was not the first instance of women in tuxes. Leading up to the 1910s and into the 1930s, many women in Paris adopted le smoking (the French term for the tuxedo; see vocab below). The ensemble was typically worn with a matching skirt, but some particularly bold women even went so far as to wear trousers. Hollywood star Marlene Dietrich is likely the most famous example of this. Her iconic androgynous look was a major inspiration for Saint Laurant when creating his design.

Illustration from “L'Art Et La Mode” 1926. Features women wearing various style of le smoking, one sporting a cigarette in a long holder; also published in Authentic French Fashions of the Twenties: 413 Costume Designs ed. JoAnne Olian (image courtesy of witness2fashion)

A Very Confusing Vocab Lesson

Throughout this exploration, I've mentioned a variety of historical terms, but how do we refer to this garment today? In the US, the term Tuxedo usually refers to the entire suit, whereas the jacket, on its own or when paired with contrasting pants, would be called a dinner jacket; colloquially, tuxedo jacket is also used, but that technically refers to the jacket of a matched set. The term Dinner Jacket, which first appeared around 1890 in England, is still the more commonly used term for this garment in British English; in the UK Dinner Jacket (often shortened to DJ) can be used to refer to just the jacket or the entire suit, although the term dinner suit is also used. In many other languages however (French included), this garment is known as a “smoking,” in reference to its smoking jacket origins (hence YSL’s Le Smoking).

Final Remarks

As a fan of classic menswear, I love a good tuxedo, but rather than take this theme as an invitation to show up dressed for junior prom, I hope celebrities and designers use it as an opportunity to do something a little more out there than the standard tux we’ve all grown so accustomed to. If we've learned nothing else from this endeavor, we've seen that men’s fashion can use some shaking up from time to time, just like they did in the late 19th century.