The Peaked Lapel Dinner Jacket (Tuxedo)

For a complete tuxedo ensemble, you will need the following:

  1. A jet black or midnight blue peaked lapel tuxedo jacket with silk or grosgrain faced lapels
  2. A matching pair of high-rise trousers with silk or grosgrain side trimmings. The trousers must not have any belt loops, should be uncuffed and should be held in place by a pair of silk suspenders.
  3. A front pleated white cotton shirt with matching cufflinks and studs. The cufflinks/stud set could be made of black stone of white Mother of Pearl.
  4. A Silk bow tie
  5. A low cut dress vest with three front buttons and silk/grosgrain lapels
  6. A white linen pocket square
  7. A pair of black over the cuff socks
  8. A pair of plain black shiny leather oxfords or a pair of patent leather oxfords
  9. No wrist watch or pocket watch with a tuxedo.
Pleated front tuxedo shirt with studs, pure silk suspenders/vests, pure silk bow-tie.
pleated trousers with side seams covered with silk ribbons
Dress vest (waistcoat) 3 x silk covered button and silk lapel
Pure silk bow tie
Patent leather oxford shoes with black over-the-cuff socks.
Complete tuxedo ensemble with white linen pocket square


Black patent leather dress (tuxedo) shoes.



Pure silk linen full-canvas tuxedo jackets
Dress waistcoat with silk lapel and silk covered buttons



The relationship between the jacket’s lapel width, shirt’s collar width, and tie width

I am often asked a question: What should be the width of my shirt’s collar? The answer lies in the person’s body structure. Elegance is all about proportion. The width of the shirt collar depends on the body shape and shape of the face.

shirt collar

The spread of a collar is determined by the point spread, as shown in the above diagram. Collars can be narrow or wide spread. You can make a collar bigger or shorted by increasing or decreasing the point length.

collar spread

The point length of a shirt’s collar should be proportional to the body structure. For example, for short people, I would recommend a collar with smaller point length. Similarly, for tall person the collar point should be larger.

The collar spread, on the other hand, depends on the shape of the face, as shown in the diagram below:


As you can see from the above diagram, for oval faces, too narrow spread collars don’t look nice because it elongates the face even more. Therefore, a spread collar shirt is more appropriate for oval faces. Similarly, for people with round faces, spread collars is more appropriate.

However, there are different face shapes and many are lucky to have a shape that is middle of the road and therefore can wear different collar shapes and spreads. The diagram below shows various face shapes.

face shapes

Similar to shirt collars, the width of a jacket’s lapel should depend on the wearer’s body structure. As you know, the body structure can be classified into the following categories:


You can also classify body shapes as Ectomorph, Mesomorph, and Endomprph as shown below:

mesomorph ektomorph

The width of the jacket’s lapel should be proportional to the wearer’s body structure.  Generally wide people wide lapel, thin people thin lapel.

lapel width 1

 Lapel Width


Tie width

The tie width should same as the lapel width.  If it differs, it should not exceed plus or minus half an inch. For example, if the lapel width is 3-inches, the tie width should be between 2.5 and 3.5 inches. (if you want to wear shinny ties you better have a suit with narrow lapels, otherwise it will look weird).

tie width

Tie Width


Tall men’s guide to style

In the Bangladeshi context, one can be considered tall is he is at least 6 feet tall.

  1. The problem of tall men is to look normal instead of looking like a giant. He should wear clothes that are proportional and deemphasize his tall stature.
  2. Check or windowpane suiting is the best options for tall men. The horizontal lines of the windowpane makes person look shorted than they really are.
  3. A tell person can wear solids, stripes, or checks. Stripes that are thicker are preferable over thinner stripes (like chalk-stripes over pinstripes)
  4. Add a ticket pocket to the jacket
  5. Your lapels need to be bigger, to be proportional to your height
  6. Larger trouser cuffs (consider 1.75 inch)
  7. Longer jacket length, to make your legs look shorter and more proportional
  8. Use TV fold pocket squares (to break continuous lines)
  9. Make sure your clothing fits you perfectly

10. Tall men has less of a challenge when dressing. If someone is too tall, (6’4” or over), finding the right readymade outfit may be a challenge.

11. A tall man looks good even with incompatible outfits because of the credit most societies attach to tall individuals.



Short men’s guide to style

Let us define “short” as any height below 5 feet 2 inches. If this is the case, then you may want to consider the following:

  1. The guideline is that the observer’s eyes must move smoothly and there must not be anything attention grabbing in the ensemble. When the eyes move smoothly, it creates an illusion of height.
  2. Solid colors are fine and avoid bold checks and bold textures.
  3. Avoid contrasts and go for harmony.
  4. Don’t wear anything that has horizontal lines.
  5. Wear closely spaced vertical checks or solids.
  6. When using pocket squares, don’t use TV folds, which create a horizontal line on the chest. Instead use a point fold, pointing upwards.
  7. A short man’s problem maybe that the head looks too big compared to the body. If this is the case, ensure that your hairstyle does not accentuate the largeness of your head. To compensate for the large head, the jacket will need to have substantial shoulder padding and don’t use suits with natural shoulders.
  8. Try to avoid jackets and trousers of different colors. Instead, wear a suit for color harmony. The dark and light combination only serves to cut you in half and draws attention to your small stature.
  9. Your dresses must be in proportion to your body. Have a shorter length jacket (just cover the bottom curve of the buttocks)
  10. Wear your trousers at the natural waist and it’s better that they be un-cuffed, un-pleated, and straight cut.
  11. To give a sleeker look, consider jackets without flapped pockets.
  12. Never have a jacket ticket pocket.
  13. Never wear very thick soled shoes.
  14. If your neck is too short, wear tailor made shirts with shorter collars (the collar’s size must be in proportion to your neck length.
  15. Always maintain good straight posture.
  16. Also ensure that your lapels and ties are in proportion to your height. Don’t wear very wide lapels and ties.
  17. Fitting is important and use fitted cloth.
  18. Most of your suits should be two buttons. Avoid three buttons (or more buttons) suits.
  19. A jacket with a thinner peak lapel is more appropriate than a notch lapel.
  20. The shirt cuff display rule of one inch do not apply to shorter man. It should be maximum half inch.
  21. Consider slanted jacket pockets instead of more traditional straight pockets.
  22. Be warned that most advertising is done with tall models and they may not look good on shorter men.
  23. Wear your ensemble with confidence.