It is done. The guillotine has fallen. After season upon season of boundary-pushing menswear, the traditional tuxedo is no more.
The public execution was held at the 91st Academy Awards, 2019. It was a befitting site. The ceremony - long derided for its conservative predictability - opened its arms, on the red carpet at least, to the unusual, the vibrant and the gender-fluid. Hollywood's purported liberalism finally permeated the male wardrobe.
Prior to this, the style coverage of the Oscars (indeed, of any star-studded event) was largely focused upon women. That's because the male attendees were identical: a safety-first homogenous blob of penguin suits. Whether old or young, stylish or staid, the stars of yore adhered to an inflexible uniform.
That's all changed. Billie Porter opted for a tux-gown hybrid. Mahershala Ali paired a Mandarin collar with a beanie and seventies specs. Master of subversion Spike Lee went for a medallion and a bright shade of violet. Then, Nicholas Hoult folded back on the classic tux with an origami-esque Dior suit. The list goes on. Black tie's murder was complete.
The knives have been slowly sharpened over the past 12 months, too. As Hollywood's incumbent enfant terrible, Ezra Miller donned a Pierpaolo Piccioli-designed Moncler disco gown last November, sticking two black, down-covered fingers to convention. And at the SAG Awards 2019, Michael B. Jordan lent from unabashed queer culture by way of a harness by Virgil Abloh's Louis Vuitton. For either to have occurred but five years ago would have been unthinkable.
Even those who did things classic did so in a way that nodded to eras-past. Instead of noughties ubiquity, Joe Alwyn and Michael B. Jordan played it safe(r) in grandstander Gatsby tuxedos - the sort full of texture, with lapels on steroids and Pavarotti cummerbunds.
Christian Bale and Willem Dafoe opted for the perennial black-on-black tie and shirt of unreasonable bouncers - and made it work brilliantly. And lest we forget Henry Golding, a man who admitted to a love affair with old Hollywood in our Esquire profile and proved it here.
The warm reception wasn't solely limited to fashion industry darlings, either. The Twitterverse showered praise upon Billy Porter's gown; Chadwick Boseman in glittering coattails; Mahershala Ali's beanie. There was even a special mention for Jason Momoa's pink Fendi scrunchie. The Oscars 2019 belong firmly to the risk-takers and the trend-makers.
Let us our pay our respects, then. Bog-standard black tie served its purpose well, but in times of great flux for menswear - and masculinity at large - we've moved onto wardrobes new. Black tie is dead. Long live black tie.
