Last month I received my first wedding invitation of the year. The dress code: lounge suit. It’s fair to say that my American colleague watched me interrogate our dress code of twenty-first century bafflement while he nodded and laughed along until he realised I wasn’t joking. “What the fuck is a lounge suit?” he said with intrigue, clearly picturing some sort of velvet smoking jacket. “Oh you know,” I said breezily, “standard formalwear.” “Are you fucking joking me?
It’s like…dressy pyjamas right?” Cue me laughing for 90 seconds. While his incredulity did eventually subside after I explained that in Britain we wear suits to weddings, and that technically he could have rocked up to a white-tie affair in colourful pyjamas if he’d wanted to*, his confusion got me thinking. Lounge suit dress code.
Tie bears. Morning suits.
No-one outside of these lonely isles has any idea what the hell we’re talking about when we try and decipher British wedding attire. <img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-2067″ src=”http://joewears.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/im1979_British_Wedding_Guest_Style_Decoding_What_Lounge_Suit__1bae9b3f-fe0d-4d46-853a-5705eaebe2a4_1.jpg” alt=”im1979_British_Wedding_Guest_Style_Decoding_What_Lounge_Suit__1bae9b3f-fe0d-4d46-853a-5705eaebe2a4_1″ /> British wedding dress codes are intentionally opaque and yet hilariously specific at the same time.
They have endless regional variations but also universal fail-safes that everyone just ‘gets’. If you haven’t grown up learning these nuanced British style rules through a series of trial and error disasters (and some achievements along the way), you’ll never really understand them. <img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-2068″ src=”http://joewears.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/im1979_British_Wedding_Guest_Style_Decoding_What_Lounge_Suit__1bae9b3f-fe0d-4d46-853a-5705eaebe2a4_2.jpg” alt=”im1979_British_Wedding_Guest_Style_Decoding_What_Lounge_Suit__1bae9b3f-fe0d-4d46-853a-5705eaebe2a4_2″ /> Like something cut specifically for you, but probably not. Our dress codes verge on the charades-worthy. “Morning suit, jackets removed for breakfast.” Say what now? “Tailcoat appropriate.” WTF is a tailcoat?
We’ll get to them, I promise. Today we’re talking lounge suit. <img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-2070″ src=”http://joewears.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/im1979_British_Wedding_Guest_Style_Decoding_What_Lounge_Suit__1bae9b3f-fe0d-4d46-853a-5705eaebe2a4_3.jpg” alt=”im1979_British_Wedding_Guest_Style_Decoding_What_Lounge_Suit__1bae9b3f-fe0d-4d46-853a-5705eaebe2a4_3″ /> At my first ever ‘lounge suit’ wedding I turned up in – you guessed it – a suit. Not a lounge suit.
A regular off-the-peg suit that I lounge around in sometimes when I’m feeling….loungey. It was a linen suit – slightly scruffy, but still smarter than most of the stuff I own. To say the bride’s mother audibly gasped when she saw me would be an understatement.
Lesson number one: lounge suit doesn’t mean lounge suit. What on earth is a lounge suit, you ask? To cut a long story short: A suit.
It falls somewhere between formal and smart-casual. Think: black tie’s fun fraternal twin that’s just been invited along to the wedding. It’s also the default dress code for most British weddings.
You’re smart, but not too smart. Smart enough that no one will wear a brighter shade of tie than you but not so bright that you’re wearing a bow tie or a tux. <img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-2073″ src=”http://joewears.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/im1979_British_Wedding_Guest_Style_Decoding_What_Lounge_Suit__4f16b589-d2b1-4f8c-a585-950abb5483bc_0.jpg” alt=”im1979_British_Wedding_Guest_Style_Decoding_What_Lounge_Suit__4f16b589-d2b1-4f8c-a585-950abb5483bc_0″ /> Fabrics: Navy is always a winner. I own a midnight navy wool two-piece from Suitsupply that I’ve worn to more weddings than most of my friends have attended.
Dark grey is great too. Light grey and mid-blue are fine for the summer months, but remember, the British summer lasts approximately three days (you’ll probably get lucky if you’re having your wedding on the south coast). Black is universally too formal and too evening-time for daytime weddings.
Leave the jet-black suit for funerals and wannabe Las Vegas weekends. Style-wise: You’re looking at something tailored, but not skinny fit. British suits are usually sharper shouldered and more waist-coated than their Italian or American counterparts.
Generally two buttons, though you can get away with three if you’re taller. Standard notch lapels are safe. Go peak if you want to flirt with madness. The biggest giveaway that your suit is a ‘lounge suit’ and not a ‘standard suit’ is in the detailing.
The tie. The pocket square. God forbid your socks match your shoes.
You get the idea. Pocket squares are compulsory. And by that I mean the handkerchief kind, folded expertly into something that looks like you vaguely know what you’re doing but actually took you half an hour and sixteen attempts in front of the mirror.
Never opt for one of those folded-down-ready-for-you bags of sad uselessness. The TV fold is acceptable as a pocket square fold for work but nowhere near formal enough for weddings. A puff fold or a two-point fold are both great alternatives.
Make sure it doesn’t match your tie exactly. With toile? Have you fallen down the rabbit hole?
Talking of ties…. Nowadays you can pretty much wear any width tie you want so long as it doesn’t look like it was purchased from an expensive fat boy fantasy store in the 1980s. Currently tying the knot ** with success is anything from 8cm – 9cm wide.
Go brighter, have some fun. Spring/summer months means patterns and thinner fabrics are acceptable. Autumn/winter means go darker and add some texture with a grenadine or knit silk tie.
I’m partial to burgundy grenadine myself. Got one from a tiny gift shop in Naples I always reach for when attending weddings. Three groomsmen have now asked me where I got it from.
You Might Also Like
Would I lie to you? Lastly, shoes. Shoes should be leather.
Oxfords are better than Derby, but not everyone can pull of full blown patent. Black is safest but brown will work with navy or off-white summer suits. Shine them to a shine that says you give a shit about your shoes, but not so much that you’ve spent every weekend drilling soldiers at an army boot camp.
And for fuck sake wear socks. Nice socks that match your trousers. Not your shoes.
They’re trousers not tasselled jimmies. One of worst sins you can commit is seeing a flash of ankle when someone sits down. Kills the line of a suit stone dead. Shirt wise, stick to white.
Pale blue is ok. Okay okay, a subtle stripe is alright if the rest of your outfit is subdued, but white is always safest. Double cuffs with cufflinks are always appreciated but not compulsory.
Barrel cuffs are fine too. Stick to a medium spread collar to keep your options open tie knot wise. Points too wide or you’ll choke yourself.
Seasons. Left: Wedding I went to last summer. Lightweight wool, cotton linen blend.
Pair it with light coloured shoes (these are Henry Green) for an altogether less formal look. Right: Wedding I went to last winter. A heavier wool means you can go darker with your tie.
Cufflinks: Hugo Porter. The same rule applies for British weddings. Summer bouts= lighter colours and breathable fabrics. Linen is pushing it if it’s not actually a beach wedding (looking at you Southeast UK.
You lot are the worst for this.) Three-pieces are a no-no for summer, but an excellent option for adding some British flair to autumn/winter weddings. Winter weddings= heavier fabrics. A good worsted wool or a flannel works beautifully.
Go for a three-piece to keep you cosy as well as adding some style points. Invest in a good overcoat. You will thank me later.
No quilted anything, no matter how cold and miserable it is. Scarf to match if it’s really chilly. Morning suits weddings. If your invite says morning suit, you my friend, wear a tailcoat.
We’ll do full guide on how to properly wear a tailcoat soon I promise. As you can see from our man SkyFall here, it involves stripes. <img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-2085″ src=”http://joewears.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/im1979_British_Wedding_Guest_Style_Decoding_What_Lounge_Suit__5644f29c-01fa-4914-b512-bc1a08f933d7_1.jpg” alt=”im1979_British_Wedding_Guest_Style_Decoding_What_Lounge_Suit__5644f29c-01fa-4914-b512-bc1a08f933d7_1″ /> If they say lounge suit but then follow it up with ‘colourful’ or ‘festive’ dressing…don’t wear a children’s television presenter outfit. They mean maybe wear a burgundy jacket instead of navy?
Throw on a patterned tie that isn’t close enough to registrar’s stripes to get you kicked out. Maybe wear a coloured pocket square that doesn’t come straight out of your breast pocket. Little hints of fun, that’s all they’re asking for.
London weddings will usually interpret lounge suit more conservatively than your Scottish isles cousins who will invite you to wear a cheque three-piece with co-ordinating pocket watch. Scottish weddings also open up the can of worms that is whether you should wear a kilt. Only do this if you’re Scottish.
Not half Scottish.
Scottish. Actual Scottish. <img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-2084″ src=”http://joewears.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/im1979_British_Wedding_Guest_Style_Decoding_What_Lounge_Suit_edited.jpg” alt=”im1979_British_Wedding_Guest_Style_Decoding_What_Lounge_Suit_edited” /> My advice, based on having now worn approximately every acceptable combination of wedding outfit in the past decade: When in doubt, dress too smart.
There will always be someone better dressed than you at a wedding. There will never be someone worse dressed than you that everyone doesn’t whisper about for years. Ask me how I know about the linen suit incident of ’14.
Still stuck? Email, tweet, DM, smoke signal the couple or someone in the wedding party. A polite ‘Just checking what you mean by lounge suit for the wedding?’ will stop any chance of embarrassment.
Nine times out of ten people love you asking. And finally, a word from someone who learned this lesson the very hard way….DON’T upstage the groom. Unless you’re invited to wear a morning suit. *I could have. **If ties could speak.<|end_of_document|>
