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You have bought the ring, asked the question and she has said "yes". Your families are planning the wedding of the centuary and have let it be known that there is only one option for you regarding what to wear to the wedding. A tuxedo.

Men are actually lucky with the options available to them regarding formal wear. They either wear a suit and for those really special occasions like a fancy wedding or a formal ball they have to wear a tuxedo suit.

Men look elegant and handsome in a tuxedo suit and the black color suits everybody. It has been called a penguin suit but few people know that the history of the tuxedo is connected to a Native American tribe called the Algonquin.

A tobacco magnate called Pierre Lorillard IV who lived in the 1900's started a residential colony called Tuxedo park about forty miles from New York City.

The land was bought from the Algonquin tribe who called it "P'touk-seet-tough" which means the home of the bear. The name stayed with the new owners who decided to call their new neighborhood Tuxedo Park.

Tuxedo Park became a social center for the city's rich and elite. They referred to their social organization as the Tuxedo Club. In 1886 the Tuxedo Club held it's first Autumn Ball. Griswold Lorillard, the grandson of Pierre Lorillard IV together with a few of his friends decided to use this fancy ball to mock the Tuxedo Club. They, just like the young men of today, enjoyed an opportunity to scandalize their parents and their parents very proper friends. They decided to change the attire that they were expected to show up in. They wore ordinary formal pants with evening jackets whose tails have been removed.

Until then formal wear for men meant a long tailcoat and white tie. With the short jackets they wore scarlet waistcoats. A scandalous thing to do at that time. When Griswald was told that he and his friends are dressed like Englishmen on a fox hunt, he replied, "Yes, we are hunting for foxes," and he went straight off to chat to a pretty young lady standing nearby.

The young men, however, managed to charm their fellow males at the Autumn Ball and their outfits were soon copied. In 1889 the tuxedo suit were allowed into the Dress Circle of the New York's Metropolitan Opera. Men has been wearing it since then.

The act that was to mock the Tuxedo Club actually made sure that the word "tuxedo" stayed around long after Griswald and his friends passed along.

If you think of it, the history of the tuxedo has spanned already three centuries. One wonders what a young man will decide to wear to irritate his parents at a formal affair in the year 3001.

Learn more about this author, Marina Shemesh.
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