Length of tuxedo jacket ?

[ahoffman7]

Hello All,
I understand the proper length of a suit jacket is to end about an inch below your rear. Does the same rule apply to tuxedo jackets? Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[David V]

And why would it be any different.

 

[ahoffman7]

I'm not sure why...hence the question

 

[fcuknu]

Originally Posted by David V

And why would it be any different.
you say it as if formal wear and regular suiting rules are all exactly the same. To actually help and answer the question, it should, for the most part, fit similarly to a regular suit.

 

[Bird's One View]

Here is what I have observed.

When my parents got me my first tuxedo they told me that it should fit more closely than a business suit.

This was 1988 or 1989. Huge shoulder pads and extraneous pleats were the order of the day. It was literally impossible to buy flat front casual pants (other than blue jeans or army surplus) in my hometown. J Press and O'Connell's might have been selling them, but no one at the local mall was.

Today with guys wearing painted-on suits with high-water pants, no one talks about dinner clothes being closer fitting than anything else.

Dinner clothes (as formal clothes) resist fashion changes to a greater extent than casual clothes. If jackets get longer for a few years, some will observe that "dinner jackets should be shorter" than ordinary jackets.

Cf. the belief that tuxedo trousers "should" have pleats -- despite them being unfashionable at the moment. When pleats were fashionable the idea was that tuxedo trousers should not have them!

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE?

I have a few old dinner jackets in the closet, and they are all pretty short relative to their sleeve length (and all are about the length of a "short" jacket sold today). Unfortunately my oldest casual suits are from 1970 so I have no casual day clothes contemporary to the dinner jackets to compare.