Black tie is the one dress code where nobody wants a jolly compromise. You want drama, but drama that survives a three hour dinner, two glasses of something fizzy and a taxi queue in the cold, and that is exactly what separates a good black tie dress from a good going out dress that’s been drafted in for the job because it happened to be black. The proper ones have weight to them. A silk that pools rather than clings, a crepe that holds its shape when you sit down for the speeches, a jersey with just enough structure that you’re not tugging at it between courses. Cheap black tie fabric announces itself the second you move, and movement is the whole point of a party.
The best of this category tends to do one dramatic thing and leave the rest alone.
A back that actually does something. A slit that means business rather than flirting with the idea. A neckline cut close enough to the collarbone that you can wear real jewellery without the two fighting each other. What you don’t want is a dress trying to be five different dresses at once, sequins and a slit and a cutout all arguing for attention on the same body.
Styling this properly means resisting the urge to overdress the dress. A sharp black tie piece wants a clean shoe, a strong lip, hair either scraped back or left completely alone, and one piece of proper jewellery rather than four small nervous ones. A good coat matters more here than almost any other occasion, because you’ll be photographed getting out of a car in it, so it earns its place as much as the dress does.
This is the category for the dinner that comes with an actual dress code line at the bottom of the invitation, the awards evening, the wedding where the couple have specified black tie and mean it, the one night a year you want the entrance to do some of the talking before you’ve said a word.
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