The Right Amount Of Cuff

It is my opinion that the one occasion when a man should reveal a generous amount of cuff it is at a black tie event. Although there are many wonderful combinations of suit wool and cotton cuffs really popping an ensemble, nothing quite matches the wonderful contrast that the rich blacks of a tuxedo jacket offer against the strong and clean whites of a dinner shirt.

However, one of the obstacles with men who like to cut their jackets with a slim fit is that the tight arm holes and narrow jacket sleeves pull the end of the shirt cuff up so that the cuff no longer protrudes. The solution is to either allow for this in the dinner shirt sleeve length or else to allow a greater tolerance in your jacket sleeve.

For this reason I recommend that you purchase a custom made dinner shirt if you are acquiring a new dinner suit. Whether the suit is RTW, MTO or bespoke, there is a greater chance your tailor or alterations house can alter the jacket sleeve heads and less of a chance they can alter the shirt (especially if the sleeve length is too short).

Whilst this might seem like a rather contrived blog post since there are fewer and fewer black tie events that people attend, there is one group of men I deal with, namely grooms, where this dilemma is faced regularly. Preparation is the key, once you have purchase the dinner jacket, allow enough time for someone to knock you out a shirt (2 weeks) and enough time to alter it if needs be (1 week).

Holland & Sherry black velvet smoking jacket by Le Noeud Papillon, bespoke marcella and diamond weave cotton shirt by Le Noeud Papillon. Beghum Khan cufflinks.