Contemporary clothing

Western dress code

Western dress codes are dress codes in Western culture governing what garments are worn together and in what setting. Examples of dress codes are combinations such as "smart casual", or "morning dress". A classification of these codes is normally made for varying levels of formality and times of day. In traditional Western dressing, for men the more formal dress codes, such as "black tie", are highly codified with essentially fixed definitions, mostly unchanged for more than fifty years, while the more casual classifications change very quickly, and a worldwide or widely relevant discussion is impossible. For women, changes in fashion are more rapid.

In practical use, dress codes are either followed intuitively or enforced by peer pressure, so that people wear similar clothing in the same situations. Alternatively, at more formal events where a dress code is specified, invitees wear clothes at the specified level; if some variation is permitted (for example, "black tie preferred"), the host will wear the most formal option to save guests the embarrassment of out-dressing him. Appropriate national dress is generally permitted, and national variations are also widely worn as an exception to the trend of uniformity with peers, often in the form of the head gear (see kippa, turban, hijab).

Formal

Typical events: Weddings, state dinners, etc. Note that the use of white tie and morning dress has become rare in some countries (such as the U.S. and Australia), where black tie or a lounge suit (as appropriate) is often worn to the above events Formal wear (Canada, US) and formal dress (UK) are general terms for clothing suitable for formal social events, such as a wedding, formal garden party or dinner, débutante cotillion, dance, or race. The Western style of formal evening dress, characterised by black and white garments, has spread through many countries; it is almost always the standard formal social dress in countries without a formal national costume.

A dress code is a set of rules governing a certain combination of clothing; some examples are black tie and morning dress. Formal dress is the grouping of all the dress codes which govern clothes worn to formal events. The traditional rules that govern men's formal dress are strictly observed; from these derive the evening dress variants worn on many occasions, such as high school prom dances, formal entertainment industryaward programs.

dances, and

The dress code considered formal in the evening is white tie. In the UK, morning dress is standard formal day time clothing (a lounge suit being still considered informal dress), but in the US/Canada morning dress is rare, having been replaced with the stroller and then the lounge, or business suit. Morning dress, however, does remain in certain settings in Europe, Australia, and Japan.

Semi-formal

In Western clothing semi-formal is a grouping of dress codes indicating the sort of clothes worn to events with a level of protocol between informal(e.g., lounge suit) and formal. Both morning and evening semi-formal attire share design features in common with the informal lounge suit.In the daytime (before six o'clock), the semi-formal code requires for men a black tail-less coat with formal (striped or checked) trousers. This combination is a less formal version of morning dress, which features a longer, cutaway morning coat. This semi-formal ensemble is sometimes referred to as a "stroller" in North America though it is unknown in the UK, where, though the garment itself saw a limited period of popularity, was simply called black lounge. Because black was then reserved for formalwear, it was unknown as a color forlounge suits, so the term was unambiguous. In the UK this mode of dress is now extremely unusual, though some Masonic Lodges which meet during the day rather than (as is more common) in the evening do continue to specify it as their dress code. It also still is worn within the legal profession, especially by barristers. Indeed, the striped trousers are in some circles referred to as "barrister trousers". InGerman, a stroller is called a Stresemann, after the German foreign secretary Gustav Stresemann. Stresemann, like other German politicians of his age, wore morning dress or a frock coat in the Reichstag or when making public appearances. However, Stresemann found the long coat impractical for daily work in the Chancellery. To avoid having to change completely, he began to wear the prototype of this jacket at his office, while switching to a morning coat when engaged on more formal business. The style quickly caught on as a more practical variation on morning dress. In Japan, it is known as a "director's suit", from the term inside director.

For evening wear, the corresponding code is black tie (shortened tuxedo in American English). The name "black tie" for this type of evening wear can be misleading because it is a generally accepted practice to substitute the traditional black tie for other colors. In formal evening dress, or white tie dress, this practice of substituting colors in ties is much less common since men's fashion tends to follow tradition more deeply as it becomes more formal.

The origins of evening semi-formal attire date back to the later 19th century when Edward, Prince of Wales (subsequently Edward VII), wanted a more comfortable dinner attire than the swallowtail coat.

In the spring of 1886, the Prince invited James Potter, a rich New Yorker, and his wife Cora to Sandringham House, the Prince's hunting estate in Norfolk. When Potter asked for the Prince's dinner dress code, the Prince sent him to his tailor, Henry Poole & Co., in London, where he was given a suit made to the Prince's specifications with the dinner jacket.

On returning to Tuxedo Park, New York, in 1886, Potter's dinner suit proved popular at the Tuxedo Park Club. Not long afterward, when a group of men from the club chose to wear such suits to a dinner at Delmonico's Restaurant in New York City, other diners were surprised. They were told that such clothing was popular at Tuxedo Park, so the particular cut then became known as the "tuxedo".

From its creation into the 1920s, this dinner jacket was considered appropriate dress for dining in one's home or club, while the tailcoat remained in place as appropriate for public appearance.

Ethnic and cultural heritage

People may wear ethnic or national dress on special occasions or in certain roles or occupations. For example, most Korean men and women have adopted Western-style dress for daily wear, but still wear traditional hanboks on special occasions, like weddings and cultural holidays. Items of Western dress may also appear worn or accessorized in distinctive, non-Western ways. A Tongan man may combine a used T-shirt with a Tongan wrapped skirt, or tupenu.The concept of ethnic origin is an attempt to classify people, not according to their current nationality, but according to commonalities in their social background. For example somebody living in a monocultural environment, speaking English for example and clearly a member of an English-speaking cultural milieu, may be descended from immigrants speaking some other language and still participate in some of aspects their culture.

Ethnic origin implies one or more of the following:^[1]

• shared origins or social background;
• shared culture and traditions that are distinctive, maintained between generations, and lead to a sense of identity and group;
• a common language
• a common religious tradition.

Ethnic origin has become a popular classification in statistics, where the concept of races has been largely discarded since World War II, for various reasons. A reaction against the abuses of the Nazis and apartheid made it hard to collect, store or publish racial data^{[citation needed]}. Social scientists in general have lost interest in race as useful concept of study^{[citation needed]}, with many other differences between population groups more significant. However the relative prosperity of distinguishable groups remain of interest in public policy discussions.

In the US, however, the use of the term race is still current. The census asks questions about race, though the classification used is no different from what would be termed ethnic origin elsewhere^{[citation needed]}.

The concept of ethnic origin in practice may seem arbitrary and without a rigorous definition of how to assign a person to the particular categories. If a person was asked for their ethnic origin and answered "how do I tell what ethnic origin I am?" it may not be clear whether they are being asked for: their country of birth, the country of birth of their parents, or more distant ancestors (how distant?), or for a description of their appearance, such as skin colour or hair type, or for their cultural behaviour such as food, clothing, language and the people they associate with. The answers to these questions may be contradictory and suggest different ethnic origins.

The answer of interest to the questioner is probably whether the person considers themselves to be a member of a particular ethnic subdivision of society, or are considered a member of a such a group by others^{[citation needed]}. This would affect whether they were possibly subject to discrimination etc. However the question is still open to interpretation, since a person may be identified differently depending on the mode of contact, e.g., considering outward appearance such as skin colour or clothing, name, or use of written or oral language, etc. This raises the question of whether ethnic origin is just another term for ethnic group