Wiktionary
n. 1 The most formal kind of eveningwear for men consisting of an evening tailcoat, trousers with strips of braid down the side seams, white stiff-fronted shirt, white bow tie and waistcoat with or without sash. 2 A dress code specifying white tie for men and ball gown or evening dress for women, or, alternatively, full military dress or national costume.
WordNet
n. bow tie worn as part of a man's formal evening dress
formalwear consisting of full evening dress for men [syn: dress suit, full dress, tailcoat, tail coat, tails, white tie and tails]
Wikipedia
White tie, also called full evening dress, is the most formal evening dress code in Western fashion. For men, it consists of a black tailcoat worn over a white starched shirt, marcella waistcoat and the eponymous white bow tie worn around a detachable collar. High-waisted black trousers and patent leather shoes complete the outfit, although decorations can be worn and a top hat and white scarf are acceptable as accessories. Women wear full length evening or ball gown and, optionally, jewellery, tiaras, a small bag and evening gloves.
The dress code's origins can be traced to the end of the 18th century, when high society men began abandoning their breeches, lacy shirts and richly decorated evening coats for more austere tailcoats in dark colours, a look inspired by the country gentleman. Fashionable dandies like Beau Brummell popularised a minimalist style in the Regency era, tending to favour dark blue or black tailcoats, often with trousers instead of breeches, and white shirts, waistcoats and cravats. By the 1840s the minimalist black and white combination had become the standard evening wear for upper class men. Despite the emergence of the dinner jacket (or tuxedo) as a less formal and more comfortable alternative in the 1880s, full evening dress remained the staple. At the turn of the 20th century, white became the only colour of waistcoats and ties worn with full evening dress, contrasting with black ties and waistcoats with the dinner jacket, an ensemble which became known as black tie.
From the 1920s onward black tie slowly replaced white tie as the default evening wear for important events, so that by the 21st century white tie had become rare. White tie now tends to be reserved for royal ceremonies—especially state dinners—and a very select group of social events such as Commemoration balls at Oxford and Cambridge universities and very formal weddings. The Vienna State Opera and the Nobel Prize ceremony are white tie events, and some European universities retain it as the dress code for doctoral conferment ceremonies.
Usage examples of "white tie".
Bret's cuff-links were large and made from antique gold coins, and his blue-and-white tie was of a pattern sold only to Concorde passengers.
It will show you pretty well how pipped I was when I tell you that I near as a toucher put on a white tie with a dinner-jacket.
His black hair was less slicked and less sharply parted than usual, his face was glistening with sweat, and his white tie lay loosely on his purple shirt.
Watt was wearing country tweed but he would have looked better in tails and white tie, Johnny decided.
Now please listen to what I'm saying There'll be hundreds of people there, white tie to rags, you know, and do be discreet Just come up to me, and when you kiss me, whisper your name in my ear What is it again?
It fits you welt, that white tie, to come home in at eleven o'clock in the morning!
The second man was huge, of a light coffee color, imposing in a frock coat and white tie.
He put on high-waisted black trousers and knotted a white tie on his black shirt.
Normally he would have been fretting around, trying to find the socks, the breeches, the shirt and the white tie which he wore when he last won a class.
The white tie took even longer and was so white that his face and teeth looked yellow by comparison.
Instead my hand found his white tie, slightly askew, and I straightened it, the gesture of a wife of many years with her husband, just before going out the front door of our town house and into a carriage and off to a play or an opera and he is always doing this, tying his tie and leaving it crooked, and it's touching, really, for me, for his wife, because his mind, which respects me and listens to me and considers me its equal, is so often filled with ideas that he neglects his body, even in the tying of a .
A prim and elegant butler stood before them, making final adjustments on the white tie and tuxedo he had apparently just donned.
His white tie and tails were again too big, emphasizing his Charlie Chaplin air of a dressed-up vagrant, despite his severe stiff saluting and the cheers and applause of beautiful women and important-looking men, all stretching their necks to stare worshipfully.