Ocean's Eleven Style: The Shawl Lapel, the Bow Tie and the Patent Toe
The short answer: black tie has one shape and the three details that keep it are a lapel with no notch cut into it, a bow tie instead of a long one, and a shoe with a finish that reads under low light. Get those right and the outfit disappears into the man. Get any of them wrong and the eye goes straight to the mistake, because formal wear has no spare parts to hide behind.
Steven Soderbergh's 2001 film, costumed by Jeffrey Kurland, puts George Clooney's Danny Ocean in black tie in a casino full of men also wearing black tie, and he is the one who looks comfortable. That is the achievement. Everyone else is attending an event. He is at work, in the clothes he works in, and the film never once lets him fuss with a cuff or straighten anything. Eleven men, one uniform, and the man who treats it as a uniform wins the room.
A shawl lapel runs, a notched lapel breaks
Dinner jackets come with two correct lapels and one wrong one. The peak and the shawl are correct. The notch is the wrong one, and it is also the most common, because a notched dinner jacket is cheaper to cut on the same pattern as a business suit.
A shawl lapel is a single unbroken curve from the button up around the neck and back down the other side. There is no seam interrupting it and no wedge cut out of it, so the silk facing reads as one continuous line that frames the shirt. A notch cuts a small gap into that line, and the gap is a business suit detail. It announces, quietly but clearly, that the jacket is a suit someone has made formal rather than a formal jacket.
What to look for:
- Silk facing in grosgrain or satin, covering the whole lapel. Grosgrain is matte and ribbed, satin is smooth and catches light. Either is right; the mistake is self faced cloth.
- Midnight blue before black. Under artificial light midnight reads blacker than black does, which is why it has outlasted every other formal idea.
- One button, cut to close. A shawl dinner jacket is a closed garment and should be worn closed when standing.
- No vent, ideally, or a single vent if you need the ease. Side vents belong to the day.
A long tie belongs to daylight
The long tie is the one most men reach for because it is the one they own. It is also the single detail that collapses an otherwise correct dinner jacket into a dark suit worn at night, and it does it instantly.
The reason is mechanical, not snobbish. A long tie runs down the shirt front and splits it into two long vertical panels, which is what you want in daylight with a suit. A bow tie stops at the collar and closes the top of the shirt horizontally, which leaves the shirt front whole and lets the lapel do the framing. Black tie is built around that closed collar; the whole upper half of the outfit is designed for a tie that ends rather than one that continues.
What to buy:
- A self tie, always. It takes one evening to learn and ten seconds thereafter, and a pre tied bow sits too flat and too even to look real.
- Black silk matching the lapel facing. Grosgrain tie with grosgrain lapels, satin with satin.
- A butterfly or semi butterfly shape, 5 to 6.5 cm at the widest. The small narrow bows are a trend and they make the head look large.
- Slightly imperfect when tied. A bow tie that is perfectly symmetrical is a clip on, and everybody can tell.
Matte leather goes dead at night
A good calf oxford is the right shoe in daylight and the wrong one after dark. Casino floors, ballrooms and restaurants are lit from above by small warm sources, and matte leather absorbs that light and gives nothing back. The shoe simply stops existing at the bottom of the trouser.
A patent finish is the answer, and it has nothing to do with wanting to shine. Patent leather has a lacquered surface that reflects a point of light wherever a light source is, so the shoe holds its shape visually in a dark room. It also stays perfectly clean looking with nothing but a wipe, which matters in a garment that lives in the one place you cannot polish shoes.
What to look for:
- A plain toe patent oxford or an opera pump. A cap toe adds a line that formal wear does not want.
- Black only, and a thin leather sole. A chunky sole under a dinner trouser throws the proportion out at the hem.
- Fine black ribbed or silk socks, over the calf. Showing an ankle in black tie is the one gap nothing covers.
- Wipe the patent with a damp cloth and keep it in a bag, away from heat. The lacquer cracks if it dries out, and a cracked patent toe cannot be repaired.
Easy, quiet, owned
Put the three together and the outfit becomes one shape instead of a list of parts. The lapel runs unbroken, so the chest is a single frame. The bow closes the collar, so the shirt front stays whole. The toe catches a light, so the man is finished at the floor as well as at the neck.
What makes Danny Ocean look easy in it is not the fit alone. It is that nothing on him is a compromise, so there is nothing for him to adjust and nothing for us to examine. The men who look uncomfortable in black tie are almost always the men wearing one borrowed detail, and the detail is doing all the talking.
If you take one thing from this: own your black tie rather than renting it, even once. A midnight shawl jacket, a self tie bow and a pair of patent oxfords will outlast every suit in your wardrobe, because the shape has not changed in a century and will not change for you.
Frequently asked
Is a notched lapel dinner jacket really wrong?
It is the one detail that reads as a suit pretending. If you already own one, wear it and wear it closed. If you are buying, take the shawl or the peak.
Midnight blue or black?
Midnight, if you are buying one jacket. Under evening light it reads darker than black and it photographs better. Black is never wrong, just less clever.
Do I have to learn to tie a bow tie?
Yes, if you want it to look like yours. It is the same knot as a shoelace with a flat ribbon, and the slight unevenness is the whole point.
Can I wear ordinary black oxfords with black tie?
You can, and plenty of well dressed men do. You lose the reflection in low light, so the shoe disappears, but no one will call it a mistake.
What shirt goes with a shawl lapel jacket?
A marcella or pleated front shirt with a turndown collar, and studs if the front is designed for them. Keep the cuffs double and the links plain.