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Dear ESB: Is a white dinner jacket a terrible idea?

July 14, 2011

Another groom style Dear ESB from East Side Bride. She’s good in this category, isn’t she?

Groom wearing a white dinner jacket

Dear ESB,

My fiance recently broached the idea of wearing a white dinner jacket to our wedding. We’re getting married in Austin at the end of October. I’m wearing this ecru dress by Amsale.

Is a white dinner jacket on a groom a terrible idea? Are we going to clash and look awful? If so, do you have thoughts on how my loves-to-be-different fiance can express himself on our big day?

Thank you kindly.

*****

Not a terrible idea.

GQ’s Style Guy (who I consulted OFTEN when I was obsessively obsessing about H’s ensemble for our wedding), says, “White dinner jackets are meant for the summer season (beginning on Memorial Day) or for year-round temperate zones.” Austin may not be temperate year-round, but I’m willing to bet it’ll be hot in October.

And get this. He goes on to say, “The best white dinner jackets aren’t really white—they are a sort of cream color, since wool isn’t bright white. If the jacket is really white, it’s probably polyester, a fabric that doesn’t breathe well and thus isn’t the best warm-weather option.”

WOOT!

If you don’t find a “white” jacket you like, you could always go with another color. In light wool, obv, not polyester. Ron looks pretty hot in his vintage steel-blue number.

(The Style Guy has plenty more to say about white dinner jackets here.)

Photo of French actor Alain Delon via The Impossible Cool, my favorite source for photos of men who know how to wear clothes.