Men's formalwear/smart attire: How many outfits?

[Victoria2]

8 hours ago, Starstruckharper said:

How about shoes? I have a pair of black patent leather dress shoes that I wear most of the time I need to put "nice" shoes on -- will those do for formal nights or should I plan to purchase a pair of even nicer shoes?

I take two pairs of [black] evening shoes for all evening occasions,  purely in case I snap the heel off one, for instance. I'm taking a punt your shoes might not be subject to the same issue so one Gala pair sounds fine.

 

 

 

[lincslady]

On 2/14/2023 at 10:16 PM, lissie said:

I loo is slang in NZ - the proper  term is toilet 

It probably is - it is just in the UK it is considered very 'non U'   (not 'people like us', if you remember the Mitfords,)  to use it.  A bit like serviette for napkin etc.  Pure snobbery,  of course.

[BigMac1953]

In the 18th century, in Edinburgh, and before sewerage was installed, it was custom to throw buckets of waste liquid out of the window and shout "gardyloo" (gardez l'eau) as a warning to those below.

 

This is thought to be the origin of the slang "loo".

[exlondoner]

4 minutes ago, BigMac1953 said:

In the 18th century, in Edinburgh, and before sewerage was installed, it was custom to throw buckets of waste liquid out of the window and shout "gardyloo" (gardez l'eau) as a warning to those below.

 

This is thought to be the origin of the slang "loo".

Not only in Edinburgh, I suspect.

[Victoria2]

1 hour ago, exlondoner said:

Not only in Edinburgh, I suspect.

Don't you just love how topics ''expand'' [sorry Hattie].

Etymology fascinates me. In conjunction with ''loo'', I came across the Middle English term for ''toilet paper''.

 

My decorous nature prevents me from writing it! 😄

 

Back to topic. My goal these days is to see how few cases we can travel with. Judicious packing and usage of laundry, ship or passenger, is serving us both very well.

[lincslady]

Aplogies  - I have a gift for taking threads off-piste.  I would call it a euphemism rather than slang.

[Starstruckharper]

13 hours ago, exlondoner said:

Shoes are above all what makes your luggage heavy. I would take the bare minimum. (Not bare feet though. 😀)

I'm planning a pretty long trip, so I'm unfortunately going to have to take multiple pairs -- the plan is 1) Everyday/hiking boots, 2) Shower flip-flops 3) specialized dance shoes (not just for the boat - planning to do a lot of pretty serious ceilidh/step dancing on this trip) 4) black patent leathers.

Edited February 16, 2023 by Starstruckharper

[navybankerteacher]

Interesting to see a thread dedicated to" Mens Formalwear/Smart Attire"  evolve into discussion of toilet terminology and womens shoes.

[Victoria2]

5 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

Interesting to see a thread dedicated to" Mens Formalwear/Smart Attire"  evolve into discussion of toilet terminology and womens shoes.

Ha. I see a temporary swerve to visit the bathroom,  a euphemism for the word “loo”, but no discussion on women's shoes. A comment on the number of shoes packed by way of comparison, but no actual discussion.
Happy to discuss if that’s required but probably, on another thread. 🙂

[IB2]

Some of the above replies seem to be over-egging it, if the question were "how few clothes can I take?".   

 

The absolute minimum, you could get away with a single dark suit or dark jacket for the week, and meet the rules.

 

Of course, most (but not all) diners go for tuxedo/dinner jacket for the formal nights; bring one of those and you have those two nights ticked off (in terms of luggage I find having then to bring a pair of black shoes more of a nuisance than the suit, since for the other nights more normal brown shoes work fine).  For the remaining nights you just need a decent shirt - you could just bring one and use the laundry, but most travellers will bring a range.  And despite the more relaxed rules many diners still wear a jacket to dinner; again one is sufficient.

 

As the OP says, you don't have to add many additional (sensibly chosen) items to be able to mix and match for variety during the week.  Whilst I don't knock people who enjoy the dressing up and bring a whole week's worth of different outfits, it isn't necessary and for people with limited baggage or who are making onward journeys and don't want to be carrying a whole wardrobe of clothes around, it really isn't necessary!

Edited February 17, 2023 by IB2