Ahhhh, you ask the million pound question! Not easy to answer without knowing the event requirements and experience! Even then its easy to get it wrong!
When an invitation arrives, you use the local grapevine and if the event is an annual one then there is usually someone about that knows the form and can give the local lowdown. Failing that you contact your hosts for confirmation of attire requirements, ----------aaaaaannnnndddddd here comes a potential problem! If your host knows exactly what dress is required then all is well, if your host does not understand kilt black tie requirements then you may--- probably will---- have a problem! Those dressed in dinner suits will be fine, those dressed in formal kilt attire then the problem has only just begun!
As a rough guide when in doubt dress like that chap on the left of that last picture that I commented on and 90 times out of a hundred you won't be far out. That means that those who overdress will be wrong 90 times out of a hundred!
If you can trust your host or local knowledge then follow the advice to the letter. Except when your "friends" drop you in it by deliberately giving you false information! It happened to me! The hosts were in on the joke, so after a huge amount of laughter at my expense, I had a whale of a time, dressed in the wrong attire!
Anyway, I always advise underdressing rather than overdressing and in my experience its somewhere near right most of the time. High end black tie events are not that common, however if you know that the do is at Buckingham Palace for example then it does give you a clue that something special might happen. On the other hand, a Burns supper in the local pub is hardly likely to be pushing the boat out!
Originally Posted by Jock Scot
Ahhhh, you ask the million pound question! Not easy to answer without knowing the event requirements and experience! Even then its easy to get it wrong!
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