A guide to the luxury tuxedo for women – and why white is the most glamorous choice
Daisy Knatchbull of Savile Row tailor’s The Deck never wanted to wear dresses as a child. I did. All the time. In the 1960s that’s what small girls wore, the frillier and whooshier the better. Decades later and years apart (she’s 32, I’m 61), we find ourselves on the same sartorial page – feeling at our most feminine in trouser suits.
Why is this? For Knatchbull it’s because she’s 5ft 10in and one of those rangy Amazonians always so at home in tailoring. For me it’s because over the past few years, dresses have become too similar in spirit to those I wore as a child – frilly, flouncy and with suffocating amounts of fabric.
The recent renaissance of trouser suits came at just the right time for me. For cocktails, summer dos, work events and transitional months (every month in northern Europe), they seem the easiest, most sophisticated option. Sometimes I mix them up, wearing one of my two all-time favourite jackets, made for me by the late Edward Sexton, who sadly died in July.
His work is impeccable, and boy did his peak lapels have swagger. He made suits for the Rolling Stones, Bianca Jagger and the Beatles (worn on the Abbey Road cover). He also did the templates for Stella McCartney. I have a single-breasted navy jacket and a grey one that I wear on rotation with matching or mismatching trousers, jeans, bias-cut silk maxis… They’ll solve most of my daytime dilemmas for the foreseeable future and will probably outlast me.
Lisa wears: Made-to-measure three-piece wool barathea suit, from £2,800, The Deck; Acetate sunglasses £350, Bottega Veneta; Suede shoes, £590, Roger Vivier
The white (or ivory or cream) tuxedo has to be one of the most glamorous looks of any era – I’ve been hankering after one ever since I wore this version here in a shoot for The Deck’s International Women’s Day campaign a couple of years ago, but in an abstract way, because we all know it isn’t the most practical choice.
There are ways to minimise dry-cleaning, though: ‘Often steaming will open up the wool hair, releasing the dirt,’ says Knatchbull. ‘Simply rubbing the fabric against itself with water can also lift a mark.’ Easy does it. ‘Use the gentlest of cleaning products (on a hidden test-patch first) and dry-clean as a last resort,’ she goes on. ‘Good dry-cleaners such as Blanc don’t use toxic chemicals.’ Just be sure to clean all pieces together so they don’t end up different colours.
Recently my tux stalking has reached a new level: I cross-reference my favourites from Matches, The Row, My Theresa, Net-a-porter and Bella Freud with those worn by Marlene Dietrich, Bianca Jagger (for her marriage to Mick, she wore a YSL blazer with a matching slit skirt), and more recently Jennifer Lawrence and Naomie Harris; I’ve set alerts on hardlyeverwornit.com and vestiairecollective.com; I take detours past the The Deck’s window.
Sometimes I think what I really want is Dior’s ultra-feminine ivory Bar jacket, which Cecilie Bahnsen has done a modern take on in white denim with matching trousers. Other times I’m head over heels with Rabih Kayrouz’s oversized sloping shoulders. The Row has them too, as does Officine Générale, still a fashion insider’s secret.
But how close am I really to buying one? How flattering are cream trousers over my least favourite body part (my thighs)? And how often would I actually wear it?
‘More often than you’d think,’ says Knatchbull. ‘I wear mine to every kind of summer event with tan shoes, but also in winter with a cream or black jumper and black heels. Brides, she notes, have been ordering them in ever greater numbers, ‘not just because they seem modern and fresh, but because they want to get wear out of them afterwards’. Only wedding guests are debarred: ‘I’m very traditional in that sense. I wouldn’t ever wear white to a wedding, not even as a trouser suit,’ she says. But to anything else, even the dressiest gala? The red carpets currently are testimony to their star power.
While a white suit may not seem the friendliest of outfits for women without Knatchbull’s long limbs, she says it’s all a question of proportions. ‘I’m reluctant to lay down hard-and-fast rules,’ she says. ‘We have women who come in thinking they could never wear double-breasted because they have big boobs, or they can’t do cream because they’re too curvy…’
The Rolls-Royce solution, getting something made, can be intimidating, particularly if you’re not used to the endless questions about details you may never have considered, three to four fittings and a two-month wait. And that’s not to mention the price, which is £5,500 on Savile Row for bespoke. Even that is great value, though, when you think how much an off-the-peg white blazer from Saint Laurent or Chanel costs – or, for that matter, the cream Dior Bar jacket I’ve been tracking for three years.
The Deck has turned made-to-measure into an accessible proposition by outsourcing production to Portugal: prices start at £2,200 for a two-piece, £2,600 with a waistcoat too. Plus, The Deck includes at least two extra inches at the seams to allow garments to be let out, ‘because there isn’t a woman whose body doesn’t fluctuate sometimes, depending on health, hormones, mastectomies,’ points out Knatchbull.
If you go ahead, some prior knowledge can be helpful: tuxedos traditionally have a satin or grosgrain peaked collar; a coordinating vertical satin stripe down the trousers keeps the glamour quotient high; they are generally made from barathea, a wool with natural lustre; the ideal year-round weight is 10½oz; buttons are covered…
But in 2023 rules are there to be challenged; plenty of clients choose a shawl collar for a softer effect; buttons can be in contrasting black or gold; and when it comes to narrow, wide, flared or high-waisted trousers, single- or double-breasted, it comes down to what suits you. High waists elongate legs but can also amplify thighs, so make sure the fabric skims rather than clings. Trouser pockets can add to that all-important air of slouchiness, ‘but they can also end up pouching, which you may not want,’ points out Knatchbull. Good fabrics that won’t crease include Fresco, a lightweight open-weave wool.
A single-breasted jacket with a solitary button at the navel will emphasise the waist. Or you may want a jacket that buttons high enough not to wear anything underneath – where that point is depends on you. There are infinite details to ponder, and scores of labels offering beautiful couture and RTW options. Decisions, decisions… That’s all part of the ride.
