The Journal — Formalwear / Weddings

The Met Gala itself is an invitation-only event with a dress code calibrated to the year's exhibition theme — a context so specific and so curated that it has almost no practical application for the broader question of how to dress. The after-parties are different. They are more numerous, more accessible, and more genuinely useful as a reference for how to dress for New York's most fashion-forward formal social occasions.

The US Open is one of the few sporting events in New York where the dress code question is genuinely interesting. Most stadium events in the city have no dress code — you wear what you wear to a game. The US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows is different: it has a tradition, a specific social character, and a clientele that spans from the casual tennis fan to the corporate hospitality guest to the serious social occasion attendee. What you wear depends entirely on which of these contexts you are in.

New York's gala calendar is one of the densest and most consequential in the world. From September through June — with a concentration in the fall (October-November) and spring (April-May) — the city produces more significant black tie and formal occasions per square mile than any other American city and more than most global cities outside of London.

The question of what groomsmen wear is one of the most overthought decisions in wedding planning and one of the most underthought in execution. Many wedding parties end up in rented tuxedos that fit badly, or in matching navy suits bought off a rack in sizes that fit no one exactly. The result is a wedding party that looks like a group that got dressed together, rather than a group of well-dressed individuals with a shared aesthetic thread.