It’s time to embrace velvet this New Year’s Eve
It’s time to shake your peacock feathers, but that needn’t mean the traditional tux, says Stephen Doig
The expectation around New Year’s Eve can often outweigh the reality; I for one am more likely to be found on the sofa in a pair of pyjamas, accessorised with little more than a cat, but for those who embrace Hogmanay rather than hermitry, it’s the time for a touch of pizzazz. Where women might go all out for festive dress-up, men tend to play it safe, although those rather staid rules are changing; see Prince William’s recent foray into plush velvet slippers with his traditional tuxedo.
Just as suiting has adapted for a climate where a formal threepiece ensemble seems excessive, so too has the way we dress for evening events changed and morphed in recent years. Of course, some dress codes are cemented in stone; if your New Year’s Eve ball demands black tie, then it’s the full cummerbund and bow tie regalia for you. While most men are happiest – perhaps safest – in chinos and a nice shirt, perhaps a sharp blazer, it pays to venture down the style path less familiar once in a while, particularly on the most firework-fuelled night of the year.
Leave it to the debonair Tom Ford to provide a masterclass in how to look on-point while appropriate; this is a man who knows cocktail-hour sex appeal. “It’s just a bit more fresh and modern,” he said presenting his spring/summer 2018 collection in the broiling heat of a Milan summer six months ago, showing a glacially cool way to interpret after-dark style by pairing a tux jacket with a casually undone grandad collar shirt. Certainly, a shirt with a more interesting neckline is a way to underline the fact you’re not in corporate mode; slide a camp collar (that’s a Fifties collar that’s spread apart, rather than one from a Strictly outfit) over your blazer collar, for example. In a similar vein, it’s worth considering a jacket that’s a bit more impactful than a blazer or tuxedo; a velvet Nehru collar jacket is suitably soirée-ready but a tad more interesting.
And while wild nights out and cosy knitwear don’t regularly go hand in hand, it’s worth considering its merits; it’s warm, sleek if you opt for a lightweight wool, and looks sharp with a jacket. The Italian heritage house Bottega Veneta has even created a range of cardigans with exaggerated shawl collars, like that of an evening jacket, worn with shirts and bow tie. A happy medium between indoors ease and party glamour that might even tempt curmudgeons like me off the sofa.
Once in a while, it pays to venture down the style path less familiar