Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Evening Dress |
Evening DressNoun1. Attire to wear on formal occasions in the evening. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Evening dress (also known as full evening dress) or 'white tie'\ is the most formal dress code that exists for civilians today.1There exists a semi-formal counterpart known as black tie.
What it is
Evening dress properly consists of:
Shirt studs and cufflinks should be silver or white. A white handkerchief and flower may be worn. State decorations such as medals and sashes are usually worn by those who possess them.
- Black tailcoat with silk facings, sharply cut-away at the front;
- Black trousers with two rows of braid down each leg;
- White stiff-fronted shirt
- White stiff wing collar
- White bow tie
- White low-cut waistcoat
- Black silk stockings
- Black patent leather shoes
Outdoors a black silk plush top hat is appropriate, with an opera cloak or overcoat, even during the summer. White gloves, scarf and cane are optional extras.
When it is worn
Like black tie, evening dress is generally only worn after 6 p.m. (see note 1 for an exception). Occasions that require white tie are increasingly rare, but in the United Kingdom these still include:
In Austria and elsewhere in Continental Europe there are many balls where white tie is worn.
- State dinners (e.g. dinners with visiting heads of state)
- Commemoration balls and May balls (in Oxford and Cambridge respectively)
- Hunt balls
- Some balls during the London Season
Related forms of dress
White ties were historically worn by clerics and in the professions that formerly were filled by priests and minor clerics. In various forms they are still worn as part of:
- Clerical dress (by persons in holy orders)
- Clerical dress (by clerks etc. in Parliament)
- Court dress (in courts of law)
- Court dress (in the Royal court)
- Academic dress (in the older universities such as Oxford and Cambridge)
External link
Note
1 In the United Kingdom civilian court dress (in the Royal court) is similar to white tie, but nowadays white tie is worn in its place to the most formal state occasions, e.g. by foreign ambassadors at the State Opening of Parliament. This is the case even though such occasions occur during the day.Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Evening dress."
Synonyms: Evening DressSynonyms: evening clothes (n), eveningwear (n), formalwear (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Fashion | In court, in full dress, in evening dress; en grande tenue; (ornament). |
Ostentation | Dress; court dress, full dress, evening dress, ball dress, fancy dress; tailoring, millinery, man millinery, frippery, foppery, equipage. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Evening Dress |
| English words defined with "evening dress": black tie ♦ dinner jacket, dress suit ♦ full dress ♦ tail coat, tailcoat, tails, tux, tuxedo ♦ white tie, white tie and tails. (references) |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Portrait in evening dress uniform, by David Komuro, 1955. Credit: NAVY. |  | Men and women in evening dress around a gambling table. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Two couples in evening dress, one man being helped with his coat. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Backs of two women in evening dress at gambling table. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | Stewards in evening dress, old Belvedereans, loitered in groups about the entrance to the theatre and ushered in the visitors with ceremony |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Expressions using "evening dress": change into evening dress ♦ dressed in evening dress ♦ in evening dress. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
evening dress | 2,738 |
sexy evening dress | 220 |
plus size evening dress | 68 |
designer evening dress | 59 |
black evening dress | 38 |
maternity evening dress | 35 |
formal evening dress | 35 |
womens evening dress | 29 |
evening dress and gown | 29 |
petite evening dress | 17 |
woman evening dress | 16 |
elegant evening dress | 15 |
red evening dress | 13 |
party evening dress | 5 |
evening dress sale | 4 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "evening dress"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | aandkostuum. (various references) | |
Czech | veèerní róba, veèerní úbor (full dress), toaleta (bathroom, cloakroom, dress, lavatory, loo, rest room, toilet). (various references) | |
Danish | aftentoej. (various references) | |
Dutch | avondkleding (black tie, dinner-jacket, tuxedo). (various references) | |
Esperanto | porvesperaj vestoj, frako (dress-coat, tails). (various references) | |
Faeroese | velajakki (dress-coat, tails). (various references) | |
Finnish | juhlapuku (full dress, full-dress, uniform), iltapuku. (various references) | |
French | habit, costume de soirée. (various references) | |
German | Abendkleid (evening gown, gown), Abendgarderobe. (various references) | |
Greek | βραδινό φόρεμα (evening gown), βραδινή τουαλέτα (gown), βραδυνή ενδυμασία (black tie, dinner-jacket, tuxedo), ενδυμασία εσπερίδων. (various references) | |
Hebrew | חליפת ערב (dinner jacket, tuxedo). (various references) | |
Hungarian | estélyi ruha (evening gown, full dress, glad rags, party dress). (various references) | |
Italian | vestito da sera. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 夜会服 , イノシン酸 (changing one's image, creating a better image, efreet, emergency, Eve, evening, event, ichthammol, Ichthyol, image change, image character, image maker, image research, image survey, imagination, imagineering, imitation, immediate, immigration, innocence, innocent, innovation, inosinic acid, one's image, ruining one's image, Yves Saint-Laurent). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | イブニングドレス , やかいふく. (various references) | |
Manx | gooyn oie (nightdress), eaddagh fastyragh, cullee fastyragh. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | eveningay essdray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | vestido de noite (night-gown), trajo de cerimónia, traje de noite. (various references) | |
Romanian | rochie de searã (dinner gown), hainã de searã, frac (dress coat, tail, tails), îmbrãcãminte de searã. (various references) | |
Russian | смокинг (dinner jacket, dinner-jacket, tux, tuxedo), фрак (clawhammer coat, claw-hammer coat, dress coat, swallowtail, swallow-tailed coat, tail coat, tailcoat, tail-coat, tails), вечернее платье (glad rags, nightie), бальный туалет. (various references) | |
Spanish | traje de etiqueta (black tie, dress suit), ropa de la tarde. (various references) | |
Swedish | frack (dress coat, dress suit, dress-coat, soup and fish, tailcoat, tail-coat). (various references) | |
Turkish | smokin (black tie, dinner coat, dinner jacket, tuxedo), gece elbisesi (cocktail drees, dress clothes, formal), frak (clawhammer coat, dress coat, dress suit, frock, frock coat, full dress, penguin suit, swallow, swallow coat, swallows, tail coat, tails, white tie). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "d-e-e-e-g-i-n-n-r-s-s-v" | |
-2 letters: degressive, deservings, drivenness, greediness, veneerings. | |
-3 letters: deserving, designees, designers, energised, energises, engenders, engineers, greenness, inverness, neediness, nerviness, redesigns, reediness, reseeding, resending, veneering. | |
-4 letters: deserves, designee, designer, devisees, devisers, diereses, direness, disserve, dissever, diverges, dressing, edginess, eeriness, egressed, energids, energies, energise, engender, engineer, eserines, evenings, evenness, greenies, greisens, innerved, innerves, inverses, nereides, nereises, nervines. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Images: Slideshow | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Quotations: Fiction 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Anagrams 11. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
