As regular viewers of our channel will probably be aware, when I’m not in the office preparing content for the Gentleman’s Gazette, in my free time, I also work as a jazz vocalist around Minnesota. Today, I’m going to give you a behind-the-scenes look at how I prepared for a recent concert by giving you a step-by-step overview of how I put together my black tie ensemble.
At the time of recording this video, I’m still, what you would probably call, an emerging artist, in that I’m still making connections and getting my name out there but recently, I did take what you would probably consider to be a fairly major step and organized my own concert completely from scratch. My collaborator Maestro Andrew Casey and I put together an ensemble of twenty-four professional musicians to play an hour-long concert of songs from the Great American Songbook or Jazz Standards from the early to mid 20th century.
As you can probably imagine, there was quite a lot of preparation to do including finding a space, selecting the songs we wanted to perform, contacting the musicians, figuring out ticketing and so on. Not to mention that Maestro Casey did all of the arrangements of the songs we chose on his own but what we’ll focus on in today’s video, in line with our bread and butter here at the Gentleman’s Gazette, is specifically how I put together the outfit I decided to wear for the concert. So without any further ado, let’s jump right into the process.
Because Jazz was one of the dominant musical forms of the early and mid 20th century, it naturally has an association with the formal dress codes that became popular during that time, namely, the tuxedo. And being a student of history myself, getting all of the details of Black Tie correct is something that I find joy in doing. In fact, I came to classic menswear largely through Black Tie to begin with. Of course, tuxedos are still worn today but there’s a rich history with how they developed throughout the 20th century.
I have a few different black tie ensembles in my possession such as the vintage midnight blue double-breasted model that’s been seen on the channel before, as well as an ivory dinner jacket for warm-weather black tie. For this concert though, I decided to go with perhaps the most classic and standard orientation, a single breasted one-button peak lapel tuxedo jacket in black with matching black trousers, a black cummerbund, bow tie, and a white pleated tuxedo shirt. There were other elements to the outfit as well and we’ll get to all of the specifics.
First, I took the jacket and trousers and thoroughly brushed them off with a garment brush to get rid of any lint, hair, dust, or other debris. After affixing some black grosgrain silk suspenders that feature gold adjusters to my trousers, I put them on over my underthings which included some black silk over the calf socks from Fort Belvedere. I’ve actually gotten into the habit of wearing two pairs of socks whenever I’m wearing my black tie ensembles because my vintage opera pumps from Allen Edmonds are just a hair big on my feet. Thus, the first pair of socks I usually put on is a standard pair of cotton dress socks on top of which I’ll put these silk socks that are proper for black tie.
Before I put on any of my other garments, I figured that it was an appropriate time to finish my grooming routine. I had already showered and shaved before I put on my underthings but now was a good time for me to do my hair, as well as put on a little bit of concealer to hide any blemishes. After all, everything stands out under stage lighting. As you can learn in my recent FAQ video, I typically use a product on my hair called Groom and Clean, it provides a bit of a shiny finish and an early 20th century look that goes with my aesthetic especially with the tuxedo. This product is best applied to damp hair so I had to get my hair wet first and to make sure that nothing would come out of place during the concert, I did use a little bit of hairspray for extra hold.
With grooming done, the next task was to iron my tuxedo shirt so that it looked presentable. After the shirt was ironed, of course, it was time for me to insert its hardware. This time around, I chose a set that I’ve had for quite a while which features onyx insets in gold-plated metal. Also, the collar of the tuxedo shirt does take collar stays. Normally, I would use brass ones because they’re more durable but just on the off chance that they could be seen under the plain white fabric, I decided to go with white plastic stays instead.
After I put on my shirt, I turned next to my neckwear and my waist covering. I have several different black tie neckwear options in my collection but this time, I turn to one of my most recent acquisitions, that being a single-ended grosgrain silk bowtie from Fort Belvedere. Having only one bow shape to the tie means that the finished knot can be small and snug and lay basically flat against the collar which I appreciate. Meanwhile, my black cummerbund was just in plain satin silk. I’ll probably pick up a grosgrain cummerbund from Fort Belvedere soon just so that I can have a tie and a cummerbund that match in grosgrain.
Before putting on my tuxedo jacket, it needed some accessories of its own as well. The first of these was a white linen pocket square which I folded in a crown design for just a little bit of character. The second accessory I chose to stand out just a little bit from some of the other musicians on the stage was a red carnation boutonniere. Normally, I would want to use one of our standard models from the Fort Belvedere shop but I ran into a little bit of a problem this time around. My jacket doesn’t have any kind of buttonhole so I had to get a bit creative with my boutonniere.
First, I found an old lapel pin in my jewelry box and using a bit of hot glue, I was able to affix to that lapel pin a prototype boutonniere design that Raphael had given to me. It had been sitting around the studio for quite a while, this prototype design didn’t have a stem on its backside but rather just had a button. Therefore, the glue could easily make a point of contact between the flat lapel pin and the button on the reverse of the boutonniere so mission accomplished! I now had a boutonniere that I could simply pin through my jacket’s lapel and it would still look just as good. If I were wearing a jacket whose lapel did have a standard buttonhole though, I would go with one of our current range of boutonnieres which you can find in the Fort Belvedere shop. They all look just like real flowers but because they’re made of silk, they’ll last much longer.
I started at the bottom with my opera pumps. As viewers were quick to point out in our last video series where I wore them, the edges of my vintage pumps were looking a bit old and showing their age. As such, I used a bit of black edge and heel dressing to get them looking like new and then used a brush to get the uppers of the shoes also free of any scuffs, my shoes were good to go.
So the last remaining piece of my ensemble was a hat. I’ve been an almost religious hat wearer for years now although I do always observe proper hat etiquette. Even if my hat was only going to be worn on my way to and from the concert hall, I still would feel incomplete if I didn’t have one with me. Because this concert took place in August, I chose a summer hat, my straw boater. The boater has a long history of being associated with Black Tie so it was a natural fit and with that, my outfit was complete. All that was left to do was to rehearse at the concert hall, take a brief break, and then start the show.
I’m happy to report that things went very well with the concert. I think the ensemble turned out well as did the concert so hopefully in the future, you’ll be able to see more of my endeavors as a jazz vocalist here at the Gentleman’s Gazette! We’re still hard at work getting finished footage of the concert ready for our viewers to see but this should be a bit of a taste for you.
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