Tuxedo Shirts for Your Next Formal Event

While women have all too many choices to make when it comes to selecting a formal wear outfit, men have it a bit easier because they can simply turn to the tuxedo. A tuxedo consists of a jacket and pants, and they are traditionally worn with tuxedo shirts, a cummerbund, a bow tie, cufflinks, shirt studs, dress socks and dress shoes. If you have a wedding, a dance or other special social event that requires formal wear, then a tuxedo is best for this purpose. There are different styles of tuxedo dress shirts for your consideration.

Formal dress shirts such as tuxedo shirts are usually white in color, providing a crisp contrast to the traditional black fabric used in the tuxedo coat and pants. The front of the tuxedo shirts might be plain fabric, or sometimes a pleated front is used. Tiny folds are taken in on the fabric and then sewn down on one side to create the small pleats that can adorn some men's tuxedo shirts.

The collar on formal dress shirts, including tuxedo shirts, can create what is known as the wing collar tuxedo shirt. The wing collar dress shirt features a collar that has little points on both sides of the front that turn down, while the sides of the collar are upright. There is often a little strip of material at the back of the wing collar tuxedo shirt through which you can feed the end of the bow tie, which helps to keep the tie in exactly the right place on the wing collar dress shirt.

The tuxedo shirts are often worn with cuff links and shirt studs. The studs go in the holes in the front where buttons would ordinarily go, to give a more stylish appearance to the front of the shirt. Cuff links are traditionally worn with tuxedo dress shirts that have French cuffs. French cuffs have no buttons. Instead, they are fastened together with the cuff links, due to the thickness of the fabric at the wrist. The French cuff is created with a double thickness of cuff fabric, with the extra long cuff folded back upon itself to form the French cuff.

After you have your tuxedo jacket, pants and shirt on, you will add a cummerbund. For the most formal occasions, you would select a black pleated cummerbund to go with your black bow tie and black jacket lapels. For those events that are less strict about dress, you could select a colorful cummerbund and bow tie.

So enjoy your next formal party, event, or musical entertainment by wearing a fine selection of men's formal wear.

Susan Slobac writes about trends in tuxedo shirts & wing collar tuxedo shirt.