Advice for 50s Sharkskin Tuxedo!

[freddyboy]

Hi everyone! I'm a newbie here, and have loved reading everyone's posts and looking at your amazing style. I'm joining the fray with a request for advice.

I just bought this vintage sharkskin 50s tux on ebay, to hopefully wear at my wedding.

I'd like to wear it with a vest, but it strikes me that cummerbunds are much truer to the fashions of the day. I'm not a cummerbund guy, though (i.e. -- belly). Do you think I can get away with a vest, or with neither a vest nor a cummerbund?

Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks!

[edited for gross misspelling of *cummerbund*.]

 

[Fletch]

Go with a shiny satin vest - smooth, with no funny patterns. It will pick up the shine of the piping.

 

[Feraud]

Love the suit! I get a good vibe from that one!

Can you go vestless with that outfit?

 

[freddyboy]

Funny, I was wondering that myself. If I went without a vest or a cumberbund, would people notice? When I looked at some vintage pictures of the era -- the Rat Pack for instance (see below) -- it didn't seem that they were wearing cumberbunds. Perhaps a sharp, formal shirt and bow tie, with the jacket buttoned high would be enough?

 

[Orgetorix]

Well, conventional wisdom says that you need something to cover the waistband of your trousers when you're wearing a tuxedo. Therefore, either a vest or a cummerbund is needed with a single-breasted jacket (DBs can stay buttoned when you're sitting, so it doesn't matter). However, there were probably people in the '50s, as at all other times, who ignored that rule. Rat Pack members may have been some of them. So, if you're going for a strictly period look, I suppose you could skip the cummerbund or vest. If you want to be classically well-dressed, though, I'd wear one or the other. And, for what it's worth, I'm sure there were numbers of men wearing vests with their tuxedos in the '50s, even if cummerbunds were more prevalent.

 

[Tomasso]

Since the front quarters are open it's possible (depending on the trouser rise and your physique) that the suit may show some shirt in the area below the jacket button. It doesn't show in the photo, when on the mannequin, but it may on you. If that's the case, I'd suggest a cummerbund as a vest wouldn't look right with this suit, to my eye. Both cummerbund and tie should be on the narrow side.

 

[cookie]

50s Tuxedo

That's awesome. It seems to be a mix of different styles of formal but I love the satin finishing around the edges.

 

[Senator Jack]

That tux would be one of my prized possessions. Forget about the vest - it's not really for that continental style. I'm not much for a cummerbund myself but I do wear it to hide the outside braces buttons. Maybe I'm offering obvious info here, but make sure to wear a lay-down collar instead of a wing. Again, a great buy!

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[Fletch]

I just want to remind everybody bringing up authenticity that Freddyboy doesn't wish to emphasize his midsection with a cummerbund - and by far the best way to de-emphasize it is with some well chosen vestage. I mean, it wasn't totally unheard of to wear one with black tie in the 50s, and continental or not, a plain black satin vest would set this tux off nicely.

 

[freddyboy]

Thanks for the advice, all. The tux is indeed, quite ginchy, and I'm pretty pleased that I've snagged it on my first foray into vintage suit buying. Assuming the tailor knows his stuff, I should be quite dapper on my wedding day.

As for vest v. cummerbund, I'm starting to come around to the latter. If I find the right one, it shouldn't accentuate the stomach too much (and I've recently lost some weight, so I may be overestimating the quato belly). And the jacket, if closed, might mostly hide the cummerbund. (Of course, I may have been soured on cummerbunds by wearing ill-fitting, awkward rented versions at high school and college proms.)

In the end, I'll probably try the tux out with both vest and cummerbund, and see what works.

 

[cookie]

Das Kummerbund Problem

The cummerbund problem can also be solved by going back to the sauve linen or Palm Beach cloth double breaster shawl collar or big peaked lapels number as seen in a few of the Indy jobs on his website and elsewhere on my postings.