Western dress codes

Western dress codes are dress codes in Western culture governing what garments are worn together and in what setting. Examples of dress codes are combinations such as "smart casual", or "morning dress". A classification of these codes is normally made for varying levels of formality and times of day. In traditional Western dressing, for men the more formal dress codes, such as "black tie", are highly codified with essentially fixed definitions, mostly unchanged for more than fifty years, while the more casual classifications change very quickly, and a worldwide or widely relevant discussion is impossible. For women, changes in fashion are more rapid.

In practical use, dress codes are either followed intuitively or enforced by peer pressure, so that people wear similar clothing in the same situations. Alternatively, at more formal events where a dress code is specified, invitees wear clothes at the specified level; if some variation is permitted (for example, "black tie preferred"), the host will wear the most formal option to save guests the embarrassment of out-dressing him. Appropriate national dress is generally permitted, and national variations are also widely worn as an exception to the trend of uniformity with peers, often in the form of headgear (see kippa, turban, hijab).

The table below summarises the main codified dress codes:

Note that the definitions listed above are the strict, traditional definitions, which may not be followed in common use. For example, formal is often used to mean any of the first four, and informal to indicate what is classified here as casual.

Typical events: Weddings, state dinners, etc. Note that the use of white tie and morning dress has become rare in some countries (such as the United States and Australia), where black tie or a lounge suit (as appropriate) is often worn to the above events.

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