Formal wear (US, Canada) and formal dress (UK, Australia, New
Zealand, and other Commonwealth Realms) and eveningwear 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, characterized 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 dances, and entertainment
industry award programs.
The dress codes considered formal in the evening are white
tie and black 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.
