Source: Seventeen Magazine
Suits: A Quick Past to Present
Source: Don Murphy
1600 to 1800-Brightly colored, crafted royal court dress in 17th century- suits, wigs, and knee-breeches
1800-The The Victorian period frock coats became the fashion for gentlemen.
Towards the end of the 19th century into the Edwardian age, modern lounge suits were born as a very informal garment and steady decline in wearing frock coats to morning coats becoming the new black.
1910- Lounge suits with a shorter length started and became a regular for everyday and business dress.
1930- The Cinema Age painted a more exaggerated silhouette influenced cinema suits worn by men like Clark Gable. Loose-fitting coats and trousers tapered towards the ankle began here
The Charismatic age, Pop culture age, Hedonistic age all came with a style and redefinition of suits in its sparkles and styles highlighting and symbolizing that decade
1980- Giorgio Armani unleashed a new silhouette for mainstream tailoring with pyjama soft trousers using linen-like slouchy fabrics
The 90s brought in the minimalism and 2000 came with luxury fabrics and embroidery to amp it up with designs
So that’s the timeline for suits. What are they?
Suits:
Source: PopSugar Australia
Suits are jackets and trousers made from the same fabric. Now just as we saw above, suits have switched up a lot in patterns, styles, defining fashion, etc. but the principle has remained the same- matching tops and bottom. Another whole sector can be written down about luxury suits which I will not be getting into right now, maybe next time. So, velvet suits, cashmere-blend suits, wool suits, etc. they all fall into that category.
Another point to be made in suits is that it can be worn during any time of the day or night. With suits, it is like you have to know the rules so you can bend them a little. Here, you can experiment with different, lighter colored fabrics, casual material to give it a less formal kind of look. With suits, you can choose to dress up or dress down, with a tuxedo that is not an option. You don’t have to wear a tie or bow ties with suits. It is not that uptight of a dress code. It comes in a very wide range of colors and designs today. They aren't hardcore about pocket squares or white presidential folds either.
You can play around with your look and dress how you feel. They happen in a wide price range too. Fashion suits, classically designed suits from famous Italian designers are like a thing and they are honestly really expensive because they have been crafted with tenderness and out of love. If you get the fit and the function of it right, you can compromise a bit with fabric if you can't afford it because not a lot of people are going to figure that out with suits. You won't have the same liberty with a tux, we’ll come to it when we talk about them. So, a well-fitted suit made from a medium quality fabric will look a lot better than a suit with higher quality fabric that doesn’t fit you. Suits can focus on the fit.
Tuxedo-
Source: Vector Stock
Let's talk about tuxedos now. It is a suit per se, and that's not all that of a shock because didn't we say the aim of suits is matching jackets and trousers? Okay now commenting about the liberty and freedom for the designers- not so much room here really.
Standard or classic tux doesn't deviate much from black and midnight blue. They are available in red and a little variant color but usually, the population won't go for it. Tuxedo was spotted first in 1888 at Tuxedo Park in New York. It then was worn by the most elite in Manhattan, New York. According to the thumb rule, it is an evening dress. It is safe to say it is more formal dressing than any other suit out there. Do you know the difference between prom and homecoming dances? Yes, it is the stat of these events. men usually rent or buy a tux for prom whereas that isn't true for homecoming or any other dances during school time.
Beyond that, Black-tie events require you to have a formal dressing. Tuxedos have less flexibility, it is a black bow tie and a tux. You can change up one thing in a tux and be alright with it but usually people don't, I mean I too like to stick to classics and let me just put it put there, what you wear will reflect you so if you know you want to scream classic and original with your persona, why change anything? If you don't, go wild!
Visually, what is different between a suit and a tux is there is a grosgrain or satin lapel and stripe down on the side which is usually black. Tux also has a waist covering and probably a lot of other little details you want to look into before finishing your look, I might not be the best person to instruct you on how to wear them. About the $$$, it does cost more and let me tell you why. It's not that they are only available by those extravagant designers and retailers. It doesn't necessarily have to be even costly but you do invest more in it because when you go around in those black-tie circles, these people can tell the difference between a low cost and a high-quality fabric.
So yes it is going to be expensive if you have that social or professional group of people and you are gonna wanna invest in a higher quality fabric. And if you are spending so much on a tux, obviously it should fit. Make sure it does, lousy tux is not a thing. You don't get a free pass on poetic license here. For itty bitty events that are not regular for you, you can also rent them, which I think is pretty practical, if you only need them for once or numbered amount of times.
Source: Pinterest
CONCLUSION
Now you know the becoming and lifestyle of suits and tuxedos both so I take it you can correctly decide what to wear when? Your clothes don't define you but they do make an impression and can leave a trailing scent of you if you do it right or maybe even if you do it wrong. It matters how you wear them so like I always say, accessories your look with a smile and confidence. Other than that, have some fun! :)