The Smoking Jacket
Next time you bridle at stuffing yourself into a tuxedo to meet a formal dress code, remember that that monkey suit you’re dreading is the spawn of the smoking jacket. Yes, back in the day—before 1865—when Downton-Abbey-caliber people changed their clothes for dinner, there were no tuxedos. Gentlemen supped in really formalwear: tailcoats. At meal’s end, men went off for cigars, but not before ditching their tailcoats for a smoking jacket. After all, you needed a garment to absorb smoke and other detritus before you rejoined the gentler sex in your tails. Such jackets were more like short robes made of colorful velvet, silk and satin. England’s then Prince of Wales—the …