Grooms Through History

I’ve been taking some time getting things sorted in my head about the groomsmen’s style. When I started down this journey I had expected that a) I would be renting and b) I would be going down the cloned wedding morning suit route.

Now that I’ve been exposed to the myriad of options available in the rental and bespoke market, as well as looking at all the fine examples given by our real grooms section, I have become more confused than ever! There are just so many options available.

I keep on asking myself “what’s right”. I can tell myself time and time again that it’s down to my personal wants and styles, but I really do have to be considerate of the type of wedding we are having, the location, and the expectation of the guests. I get the feeling that turning up in linen shorts, a loose shirt and no tie would mortify my Nan, for example!

So, as ever, I ended up trying to look at things as objectively as possible. The first point was to look at the current wedding market. As ever, the wedding is designed to propagate stereotypes in order to churn out continual revenue. It’s totally understandable that the bottom line matters to these companies, but it also has a detrimental effect. What it engenders is a belief that the styles they are trying to push are somehow traditional.

This was certainly my belief before I undertook my research. Through random google-ing and frustrated browsing, I was saved by none other than the V&A! Now long-time readers of my blog will know that the V&A holds a special place in my heart for obvious reasons, so I was pleasantly surprised to find them as my saviour. The V&A website have set up a special website devoted to wedding fashion – granted it’s mostly orientated towards the wedding dress ahead of their 2013 exhibition on the subject, but the photos provided on the site give an astounding insight into what the men were also wearing.

Now – most people probably think that the Morning Suit is the “traditional” wedding attire. That the “Edward” is a modern twist, and that normal suits are somewhat of a modern deviation that’s not at all in keeping with what men should wear at a wedding. I certainly thought so; how wrong I was! Below I present a few choice excerpts from the site (which is also efficiently organised into distinct historical periods):

Victorian Period

Victorian Wedding 1893

The Victorians have a lot to answer for today’s styling – they really espoused the styles of morning wear or frock coats. What you will notice through, is that a number of groomsmen will have differing morning suits – this is because in these times gentry would have been expected to own morningwear for use on a daily basis. It was the norm for them, not an occasional garment.

Also notice that a number of the pictures feature groomsmen wearing white ties – giving a strange blend between what we now consider morning wear and white-tie evening wear. They do look rather dashing though, and it’s a tradition still popular with many grooms; the white matching the Bride’s dress.

However, take a look at the example picture I’ve selected. In this picture from 1893, we can see the men of the bridal party not in morning wear, but individual suits – a mix of single-breasted and double-breasted as well! They all look rather great I have to say. They still look quintessentially Victorian, but they are all rocking their individual looks.

Edwardian Period

Edwardian Wedding 1906

Unsuprisingly, the Edwardian period shows the trend of wearing the “Edward” jacket – resurrected today as a trendy alternative to the morning Jacket

What I like most about this wedding (apart from the awesome Edwardian hats on the ladies) is the grooms being similar yet different. Only one has a flower buttonhole, the groom has a cool badge-type buttonhole (see, our advice on alternative buttonholes is not only cool – it’s now vintage cool)

The groom sports a morning suit with multiple buttons – a look I really like and it would be cool to see this look revived by morningwear suppliers. The rest of the chaps wear really nice Edwards – what ties them all together is matching ties, an idea you can still use if you have differing suits (see our Real Groom, Dan Anderson for an excellent example).

The 1930s

1930 Wedding

The 1930′s are renowned for being a period noted for it’s unique style. This photo from a London wedding in 1930 really epitomises that amazing look in my opinion.

Apart from the great style of the ladies, the gents also look really great in this one – every guy in this photo is wearing something unique to them – the groom has an awesome double-breasted suit with contrasting striped trousers. A very sharp urban look that’s complimented by the peak lapels.

This example is almost the opposite to the Edwardian – with every gent being unique, they need something else to pull them together. In this case it’s the matching buttonholes, which brings all the gents together while letting each of them show their individuality. Our Real Groom Neal Bez-Suzuki used this trick to tie in with his groomsmen, even though he was wearing an awesome unique wedding suit.

That’s just a small flavour of the examples available on the V&A Weddings page – it truly is an inspiring set of images, and should encourage each and every groom to choose exactly what he wants for his wedding. There are no set rules, and don’t let any nay-sayer, MIL or deluded wedding planner tell you different. If they want to argue, just give them the link to the V&A page – they can’t argue with cold hard facts!

Ultimately, however the style you want may end up being a morning suit, top hat cane and the works – I’m all for it. Just make sure you stay true to what you want to do in conjunction with your fiancée. Stamp your own style, your own personality on the day: it’s a celebration of you has a couple.

To answer my original question: What is traditional wedding wear? I think my answer would be that  individuality is traditional – following the crowd, it would seem, is a very modern thing! How does this now apply to my own ideas? Rental is out of the window. I want to feel as totally awesome in my attire as my fiancée will feel in her amazing (I assume!) dress. I’m looking into the best fit for me for options, but I’m having a lot of fun learning about suits and getting ideas about the style that I want. Sharon, as ever is a great help to know how to tie things together, but I love the fact that I am being trusted to make myself look great.

STD

Related Posts:

• Style Me Handsome
• A Suitopian Society
• Booted, Now Suited!
• Still Alive
• Real Grooms: Richard Gordon