The dinner jacket or tuxedo has long been one of the most formal get ups available for the gentleman dresser, and it’s typically always worn the same way. Chances are you’ll buy one for a one-off fancy event – a wedding, perhaps, or some boozy industry awards – and it’ll most likely be black, with satin lapels worn with matching trousers, white dress shirt and a bow tie.

There’s nothing ostensibly wrong with this look. James Bond will tell you that. But while it often allows a man to look his best it’s rather lost its licence to thrill. Whisper it, but the dinner jacket is boring. So overdone is the penguin suit look that it’s a small wonder why men keep returning to it. Plus, if you spend decent money on a dinner jacket, why restrict yourself to wearing it just once or twice a year?

Hear us out here. If you buy the right dinner jacket you can wear it for all manner of occasions. It pays to be a little creative of course, but if worn with the correct garments you can be both the best dressed man at your next black tie affair, and the talk of the evening (for all the right reasons) on your next night on the town.

Why The Rules No Longer Apply

You’ll have heard it countless times before: menswear is in the midst of a new, casual direction which has resulted in dress codes breaking down and becoming somewhat irrelevant. Basically, the suit is not what it once was – the right one today can work just as well with trainers and a T-shirt as it can with Oxfords and a necktie. You just have to know what you’re doing is all. This is even true at many Savile Row houses such as Gieves & Hawkes, whose creative director John Harrison likes “to see traditional rules broken, as long as there is a nod to the history of the usage.”

Can the same be said of the dinner jacket and can it really be worn outside of the usual march of the penguins? Traditionalists would tell you otherwise, but yes, it can. The increased formality just means you’ll have to be extra careful with how you style it.