The Brits will wear a cut-away coat with black waistcoat and black tie at a funeral, if they follow tradition strictly. Often a dark lounge suit and a white shirt will be enough though.
Butler shows, how you can substitute both cut-away and lounge suit at a funeral for something in between: a black jacket. With greyish striped trousers and black waistcoat the black jacket is a semi-formal colourless daytime attire, which spread after WW1, when cut-aways left the scene.
Unlike the cut-away, which can take a buff waistcoat and a light-hearted tie, I don’t think that the black jacket dress is a good match for a wedding. It is always black, grey, and white, and that appears too serious for a happy event like a wedding. The black jacket is better suited for a funeral.
Jacket & trousers: Steven Hitchcock, London.
Photo: The Journal of Style
Isn’t this a Stroller Suit like that worn by Sir Winston Churchill?
Yes, it’s a stroller, a Stresemann, a Bonnersnzug, a masonic suit, worn by Churchill, Adenauer and more from that generation. The traditional English word is simply “a black jacket”.
The black jacket might be suited to a funeral but how suited is having someone to take a photo of your outfit, with the church in background? The exhumation of the waistcoat slip: a nice touch. Pocket square: better folded? Chalkstripe trousers instead of traditional morning trousers: works well!
Thank you to the wearer and to the blog editor for sharing.
My Dad got married in such a Stresemann in Austria in 1969…. it was very sharp
@Frederic Leighton
Just to clarify;
You can not stop people/press from taking photos in the street on a public occasion!
Trousers are not chalk stripe, but the proper ‘Cashmere’ (which by the way are not made of cashmere) trousers worn with Black Jacket attire.
Best Butler
Dear Butler,
Thank you for clarifying about the trousers. They look great on you, even through the small screen of my notebook. I’m always happy to spot people in ‘morning trousers’ around London – I find it a shame that they are so rare.
Please don’t get me wrong due to our (persistent) divergence of opinion regarding funeral etiquette, assuming that such thing still exists. Elegant gentlemen like yourself always provide a valuable example and inspiration for less experienced men like myself.
For lounge suits and Italian funerals, do not miss this extract from Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbP-2X0jHno
Kind regards,
f