I bought my cufflinks on Etsy. They’re a vintage mother-of-pearl pair that cost me $5. You could easily go and find new ones, but vintage works just as well and there’s plenty of deals to be had. Same goes for studs. It’s worth noting that I didn’t buy any studs since I bought a tuxedo shirt that has a hidden placket, so the buttons aren’t visible and there’s no need for studs.  

For a bowtie, I bought a skinnier black one from Thomas Pink. The Tie Bar has decent (and cheap) bowties as well. Really, it just depends on your budget and what you want to spend. 

Kent Wang has all the wedding accessories you might need, if you’re looking to buy this stuff new.

As for opera pumps, I have no idea where you could affordably buy a pair beyond getting lucky on eBay. 

It’s vintage, made in Germany, I think. It’s a wool-mohair fabric blend from Italy in midnight blue. I bought it off of eBay. I wrote a guide on how to buy a dinner suit (tuxedo) on eBay a while back. 

Let me be brutally honest: There’s no good answer that won’t involve you wasting your lunch money.

Unless you’re really certain that you’ve stopped growing, opting to buy a tuxedo is going to be a waste of money for you. Looking back at what size I was in high school is fairly different than where I am now.

Going the rental route is a huge waste of cash as well, in my opinion. Rental tuxedos are complete shit.

Your best bet would probably be hitting up eBay and trying to track down a decently-priced option. I’ve written about that process here.

If you have around $300 to spend though, I think you could probably swing a tuxedo if you follow this guide from This Fits.

What would I do? I’d skip the tuxedo and buy a suit.

At the very least, having a suit would be useful for you beyond one night in high school. You could wear it to interviews and other events that are somewhat formal. Your cost-per-use would be lower overall.

Find a dark charcoal solid-colored suit, take it to a tailor to be altered to fit you correctly (taper the legs, hem the cuffs, take in the seat, slim the waist of the jacket, have him create a working boutineer hole in the lapel). Then buy a white dress shirt that has French cuffs, spread collar, no chest pocket and a French placket. Get a cheap black bowtie and white silk pocket square from The Tie Bar. Find cheap mother-of-pearl vintage cufflinks on Etsy or eBay. Get a decent pair of over-the-calf black wool socks. Find a pair of black captoe oxford shoes and shine them up nice and glossy the day before.

If the fit’s perfect, you’ll look way better than all the other guys in polyester rentals with pants baggy enough to fit two people. Plus, you’ll have the added benefit of owning a suit that’s decent enough to get you through the next few years if you take care of it (ie: garment bag to help avoid moths).

If you’re wearing a suit, sure. Sport coat, not as much. No coat, never. 

I suppose it would ultimately depend on the budget you’re working with and what you want your wedding party to pay for their suits. I seem to recall one reader mentioning he had his party order suiting separates from Lands’ End in the same color — that’s certainly a good, low-priced option where everyone at least will walk away with a decent suit for the price of most tuxedo rentals.

Of course, if you and your groomsmen are ballin’ outta control, you could all get made-to-measure suits at Ralph Lauren where you’d be able to specify fabrics and insist upon details like having peaked lapels.

But I think a good, moderately priced option would be J.Crew. Aside from the fact they have suiting separates, which makes getting everyone properly fitting trousers and jackets easier, they also have a lot of stores where your groomsmen could go to get fitted if you all don’t live in the same area.

As for which one to pick, that’s really up to you. I happen to think their double-breasted suit jacket looks pretty nice, but I also understand that many people wouldn’t want to wear a double-breasted suit outside of a more formal setting.

I’d read over this black tie guide. Make of it what you will. I tend to agree with the article’s analysis of deciphering the invitation.

Generally speaking, if I were invited to a black tie event, then I would wear a tuxedo regardless if the invite said “requested”, “recommended”, etc. Ultimately, it’s going to be your call to make.

In regards to black suits, I tend to think they fall short of black tie in many ways. They lack the grosgrain lapels, often have notched lapels, and two button fronts. It strikes me as funeral attire — or like you’re in a Tarantino film. Perhaps it’d be passable in a pinch, however, it won’t have the elegance of a tuxedo for the situation.

Thanks, taking the time is something I enjoy doing and others have definitely taken their time to answer my questions in regards to stuff sartorial. So, I’m happy to help if I can.

I’m going to break this down into a few parts. First, in regards to having to wear a tuxedo at least once a year, I’m going to recommend you buy one. For about the price of 1-2 rentals, you could’ve bought a full tuxedo, gotten it altered to fit properly, look better and gotten a shirt that also fits nicely.

I wrote about the tuxedo I bought last year and have a guide to buying a tuxedo (dinner suit) on eBay. Read over it and consider investing in a solid piece of formal wear. Occasionally, I’ll post links to tuxedos/dinner suits I find on eBay here as well. The one thing I didn’t touch on and would probably go back and do differently is use an online made-to-measure shirt service to make me a perfect-fitting tuxedo shirt. If you have a MTM service you trust and a good shirt to model your measurements off of, then I’d go that route. It’d probably be about the same price and fit better.

I’m going to tackle the shoe question next. It’s probably not going to look great with a suit. Passable? Maybe. Generally, I’d say loafers are too casual to be worn with a suit and you need some sort of laced-up shoe.

That said, I’m in the camp of suggestion you find a pair of plain, black captoes. They’ll be wearable with your tuxedo and suit at the same time. Not sure what your budget is right now, but Nordstrom has the Allen Edmonds Park Avenues on sale right now for $200. That’s about 38% off retail price. You could also try your luck on eBay to snipe a pair. Speaking of Ferragamo, I actually found my black captoes from them for $50.

And that brings us back to the suit. I’m a fan and wear several Lands’ End suits. The fact you can choose your jackets and trousers (yes, go plain front) separately is a good thing. Navy will work just fine for a color, although I think the dark charcoal is also perfectly fine.

I will say that you’ll definitely want to have your suit altered, unless you luck out with it fitting perfectly. The trousers will probably need to be tapered and taken in at the seat, too.

If you’re set on buying from Lands’ End though, then I would hold off for a bit. Subscribe to their email list and wait for the inevitable 25-30% off all items sales they seem to have every month. If you don’t think you can wait too terribly long, then sign up and wait for a discount code that’ll probably knock at least $50 off your order with free shipping.

In regards to the shirt, I’d go with Brooks Brothers ESF shirts, too. If you only really need one shirt, the only get one. However, if you feel you could use an oxford and another shirt, then go for the 3 for $200 deal. I love their OCBDs.

For a silk grenadine tie, I think Derek’s necktie series at Put This On did a great job with suggestions, but to add my two cents, the Kent Wang grenadine is phenomenal. I just received it today as a birthday gift from my brother and it knots amazingly and looks just great.

Hope this was helpful!