Thursday, March 20, 2014


Wedding Style

The Rise and Fall of Tuxedo Fashions


Wedding fashion for men's formal wear for the last several years has been somewhat off beat to say the least. Rustic wedding themes, casual looks and suits in many shades of gray have dominated the attention of many brides.  

Never before has there been such a widespread movement towards a singular look that has commanded the attention and the investment of the bridal community. What caused this wave? Welcome to the digital age where wedding themes go viral within minutes and quickly get pinned then re pinned on Pinterest boards across the country.  Thousands of newly engaged brides see a look that at first glance looks very unique and charming, only to find out within months that their unique look is being used by almost 1/3 of the brides getting married that same season. 

Louie's Tux Shop has been in the men's formal wear business for 66 years and we have seen every fashion come and go.  What was the rage 25 years ago will most certainly be the rage in the not to distant future.  Grey is a wonderful example where in the late 1980's it represented a very large portion of the men's formal wear sales only to disappear from the face of the earth for the next two decades.  As with any trend, there is the recoil away from the trend.  Brides and Grooms desire unique and individualized looks for their wedding that represents their personalities and the clothing they wear is emblematic of this. Once it is discovered that there are thousands of brides gravitating towards the same look, the movement usually goes in the exact opposite direction. 

Right now we are seeing the biggest recoil we have ever seen due to the sheer quantity of brides whose weddings involved similar simplistic and country type scenes.  The movement back to classic elegance for weddings is massive and most are going into luxurious garments featuring contemporary accessories and bow ties.  This is where the fashion cycle always ends and will usually stay there for quite a few years until someone once again decides to step out of the box into something completely different.

For the sake of all of us, let's just hope it does not involve a ruffled shirt.