Custom tuxedos for Washington DC black-tie events. Fitted at our showroom in Tysons Corner, 25 minutes from downtown DC. Hand-cut to 49 individual measurements, half-canvas baseline construction, no fused garments. We have been making formalwear for DC galas, fundraisers, embassy dinners, and white-tie evenings for fifty-five years.
For Black-Tie in Washington
Washington has more standing black-tie events on the calendar than almost any other American city. The annual fundraiser circuit, the embassy receptions, the inaugural-adjacent traditions, the press dinners, the smaller charity galas, the closer-to-home country club events that have started inviting black-tie again. A man on the DC professional or political circuit will be in a tuxedo three to twelve times a year. Renting works for the once-a-year groomsman; for the rest of the calendar, owning a tuxedo that fits properly pays for itself by the third or fourth wear.
The right tuxedo, made for your body, will outlast a decade of rental tuxedos. We have clients still wearing tuxedos we made for them in the late 1990s, with periodic retailoring as bodies change. That is the math we work to.
Styling: Peak vs. Shawl, Black vs. Midnight, Plus the Dinner Jacket
The two classic dinner-jacket lapels are peak and shawl. Peak reads slightly sharper and more formal – appropriate for nearly any black-tie event, particularly the older institutional ones. Shawl reads softer and slightly more old-Hollywood – particularly nice for charity galas, weddings, and the kinds of evenings where a touch of warmth in the silhouette is welcome. Notch lapels on a tuxedo are technically incorrect for black-tie; we do not recommend them.
Color: midnight blue almost always photographs better than true black under the warm-light bulbs typical of DC reception venues. The deep navy reads as "more black than black" in person and richer than black on camera. Black is still classic and absolutely correct; we will discuss your specific venues at the consultation.
Beyond the standard dinner jacket, we make velvet dinner jackets (typically deep midnight or black, sometimes burgundy) for clients who attend enough black-tie events to want a second formal jacket – these pair with formal worsted trousers and read beautifully under chandelier lighting. Ivory dinner jackets work for the right summer event and the right venue. White tie, when called for, is its own conversation we are happy to have.
Pricing: $1,095 Entry, with Construction and Cloth Tiers Above
Tuxedos at The Tailored Man start at $1,095 in our standard collection. Construction is half-canvas at the entry tier – we do not make fused tuxedos any more than we make fused suits.
The reason a tuxedo costs more than the equivalent suit is satin. Tuxedo lapels are faced in silk satin or grosgrain (a ribbed silk weave that some consider the higher-formality choice); the trouser carries a satin or grosgrain stripe down the outseam; collar and pocket details are detailed accordingly. Each of those silk applications is hand-finished, and the cloth itself is more expensive per yard than equivalent worsted suiting.
Pricing scales by fabric and construction:
Standard tuxedo – from $1,095. Half-canvas, satin or grosgrain facings, our base wool. The right entry point if you have one or two black-tie events a year and want the suit to be yours rather than rented.
Premium tuxedo fabrics – from $1,395. Mills include Loro Piana, Holland & Sherry, Ermenegildo Zegna, and Scabal. This is where most DC clients on the standing black-tie circuit land.
Construction upgrades on top of fabric: full canvas at +$200, fully handmade at +$350, our Presidential tier at +$500 to $750. The full-canvas Loro Piana midnight tuxedo runs around $2,500.
Fit and Alterations
Tuxedo fit is unforgiving. The garment is meant to read as severely cut, with a clean line across the chest, a precise waist, and a trouser that breaks correctly over the shoe. Off-the-rack rentals miss this by inches; off-the-rack purchases miss by less, but they still need real alterations to look correct.
Custom skips that problem. We take 49 measurements at the consultation and build the jacket and trouser to your exact frame. The first fitting catches anything that needs to change; the final fitting hands you a garment that looks like it was made for you because it was.
If you bought a tuxedo elsewhere and need real alterations – rebalancing the jacket, recutting trousers to break correctly, lengthening or shortening sleeves with the working buttonholes preserved – we do that work too. See our alterations page.
Common Questions
The questions we hear most often from new tuxedo clients – turnaround time (seven weeks for standard, faster for some construction tiers), fabric care between events, the bow tie / pre-tied debate, what shoes work best, and how the tuxedo holds up over a decade – are answered on our FAQ page. Our formalwear page goes into more depth on the full formalwear program; our Custom Suits page covers construction tiers and fabric choices in detail.
Book a Formalwear Fitting
1750 Tysons Blvd #130, McLean, VA 22102 (about 25 min from downtown DC)
(703) 288-4292
Monday–Friday 10:00am–6:00pm · Saturday 10:00am–4:00pm