Tuxedo

A dinner jacket (British English) or tuxedo (American English, also colloquially known as “tux”), dinner suit, or DJ is a formal evening suit distinguished primarily by satin or grosgrain facings on the jacket's lapels and buttons and a similar stripe along the outseam of the trousers.

The suit is typically black or midnight blue and commonly worn with a formal shirt, shoes and other accessories, most traditionally in the form prescribed by the black tie dress code. In Britain a tuxedo is a white dinner jacket.

Etymology

Dinner jacket in the context of menswear first appeared in England around 1887 and in the US around 1889. In the 1960s it became associated in North America with white or coloured jackets specifically.

Tuxedo in the context of menswear originated in the US around 1888. It was named after Tuxedo Park, a Hudson Valley enclave for New York’s social elite where it was often seen in its early years. The term was capitalized until the 1930s and at first referred only to the jacket. When the jacket was later paired with its own unique trousers and accessories in the 1900s the term began to be associated with the entire suit.