Welcome back to A Man Should Know, a weekly column from Elliot Ackerman about how today’s lost boys can become tomorrow’s good men. This week, Elliot shares lessons he himself didn’t learn until well into adulthood: the many rules of wearing a tuxedo.
I was into my 30s the first time I wore a tuxedo. Before that, I’d been in the Marines, and would wear my dress uniform to formal events. My first event out of uniform was a formal dinner, and like a good Marine, I did some research and made myself a checklist so I wouldn’t miss any of the bits and bobs that go into wearing a tux. That evening, as I put on my new white tuxedo shirt, I realized it was different from a regular white dress shirt in one significant way: It required cuff links. I scrambled around the bedroom, trying to find something to keep my cuffs shut. I settled on a pair of paper clips and hoped no one would notice.
This past year, one of my sons, age 17, had to wear a tuxedo for the first time. I sat him down, and we walked through the various pieces of his tux, so he could avoid an evening hiding his paper-clip cuff links. I told him everything I wish someone would have told me in order to dress for a special event with confidence.
