Tuxedo Park: Tuxedo (clothing)

Entry in progress—B.P.
 
Wikipedia: Tuxedo
A dinner jacket (British English) or tuxedo (American English, also colloquially known as “tux”), dinner suit, or DJ is a formal evening suit distinguished primarily by satin or grosgrain facings on the jacket’s lapels and buttons and a similar stripe along the outseam of the trousers.

The suit is typically black or midnight blue and commonly worn with a formal shirt, shoes and other accessories, most traditionally in the form prescribed by the black tie dress code. In Britain a tuxedo is a white dinner jacket.
 
Etymology
Dinner jacket in the context of menswear first appeared in England around 1887 and in the US around 1889. In the 1960s it became associated in North America with white or coloured jackets specifically.
 
Tuxedo in the context of menswear originated in the US around 1888. It was named after Tuxedo Park, a Hudson Valley enclave for New York’s social elite where it was often seen in its early years. The term was capitalized until the 1930s and at first referred only to the jacket. When the jacket was later paired with its own unique trousers and accessories in the 1900s the term began to be associated with the entire suit.
   
Wikipedia: Tuxedo Park, New York
Tuxedo Park is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 623 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY, Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area. The name is derived from a Native American word of the Lenape language, tucsedo or p’tuxseepu, which is said to mean “crooked water” or “crooked river.”
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The evening dress for men now popularly known as a tuxedo (sometimes formally termed black tie attire), takes its name from Tuxedo Park, where it was said to have been worn for the first time in the United States, by Griswold Lorillard at the annual Autumn Ball of the Tuxedo Club founded by Pierre Lorillard IV, and thereafter became popular for formal dress in America. It became known as the tuxedo when a fellow asked another at the Autumn Ball, “Why does that man’s jacket not have coattails on it?” The other answered, “He is from Tuxedo.” The first gentleman misinterpreted and told all of his friends that he saw a man wearing a jacket without coattails called a tuxedo, not from Tuxedo. This all took place at The Autumn ball, which still exists today.
 
Wikipedia: Pierre Lorillard IV
Pierre Lorillard IV (October 13, 1833 – July 7, 1901) was an American tobacco manufacturer and thoroughbred race horse owner.
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While it has been reported that Lorillard’s son, Griswold Lorillard, introduced the then-unnamed tuxedo to the United States in 1886 at the Tuxedo Club’s Autumn Ball, this is now known to be incorrect. While Griswold and his friends did create a stir by wearing unorthodox clothing, their jackets were closer to tailcoats without tails, or what would now be called a mess jacket.
 
The Tuxedo Club
The short-tailed dinner jacket as we know it today was first introduced to America by a member of The Tuxedo Club. There are differing reports of how this event occurred, but the account by Mr. Grenville Kane, founding member of The Tuxedo Club as told to J. Earle Stevens in 1929 appears to be the most authentic. In the summer of 1886, Tuxedo Club member James Brown Potter and his lovely wife, Cora, while on a visit to England, were invited by the Prince of Wales to join him at Sandringham, his country estate, for the weekend. Prior to going, Mr. Potter asked the Prince what he should wear for dinner. The Prince replied that he had adopted a short jacket in the place of a tailcoat for dinner in the country and that if Mr. Potter went to his tailor in London, he could get a similar jacket made. Mr. Potter did as the Prince suggested. When he returned to America, Mr.Potter’s friends at The Tuxedo Club were not only impressed by the account of his visit to Sandringham but also found the jacket Mr. Potter brought back more appropriate than tails for informal dinners, and so they had it copied by their own tailors. It then became the custom for members of the Club to wear this attire to informal dinners in Tuxedo Park. One evening, a group of members wore their new dinner jackets to a bachelor dinner at Delmonico’s. Their jackets attracted the attention of other diners who, upon enquiry were told “oh, that is what they wear for dinner up at Tuxedo.” And so, from that day forth, the name Tuxedo was forever associated with this style of formal wear.
   
(Oxford English Dictionary)
tuxedo, n.
Etymology:  < the name of

Tuxedo Park, N.Y., where the jacket was first introduced at the country club in 1886.
orig. and chiefly U.S.
In full tuxedo coat, tuxedo jacket. A short jacket without tails, for formal wear; a dinner-jacket.
1889   Sartorial Art Jrnl. Aug. 18/1   The low-roll, silk~faced sack, variously called the ‘Cowes’ coat, the ‘Tuxedo’ coat, and the Dress Sack, is undoubtedly popular.
1889   Sartorial Art Jrnl. Dec. 97/1   The ‘Tuxedo’ or dress sack is steadily growing in favor for dress negligee purposes.
 
4 November 1885, The Sun (Baltimore, MD), pg. 6, col. 5:
MR. LORILLARD’S NEW CLUB. Some time ago Mr. Pierre Lorillard conceived the idea of forming a club for sportsmen on his beautiful estate, in Orange county, N. Y. He owns there a tract of 5,000 acres of lakes and mountain land. he calls it Tuxedo Park, and it is situated one mile from Lorillard Station, on the Erie Railroad, among the mountains of Orange and Rockland counties. he spoke to a number of friends, who jumped at the idea of having a club where they could enjoy good shooting and fishing so accessible to the city. The upshot has been that the club was at once organized.
 
19 November 1885, New York (NY) Times, pg. 2, col. 2:
A NEW SPORTING CLUB.
SHOOTING AND FISHING AMONG THE ROCKLAND MOUNTAINS.
NYACK, NOV. 18.—“It is a grand project, and will afford a source of enjoyment for hundreds of sportsmen who have hitherto sought other and more remote localities in which to hunt and fish,” said an Orange County sporting man in reply to a question asked him by THE TIMES’S correspondent. The project referred to is that of forming a vast shooting and fishing park among the mountains of ROcon royal blue skirts scarlet kland and Orange Counties, taking in a large portion of Pierre Lorillard’s land on the eastern division of the Erie, near Lorillard Station.
 
16 December 1885, New York (NY) Times, pg. 2, col. 4:
THE NEW TRUXEDO PARK
MR. LORILLARD’S BEAUTIFUL GAME PRESERVE.
A LAKE ALREADY STOCKED WITH BASS AND THE WOODS TO BE MADE TO ABOUND WITH DEER AND BIRDS.
 
28 February 1886, New York (NY) Times, “Society Topics of the Week,” pg. 3, col. 5:
After a thorough inspection of the beautiful new grounds and clubhouse and two or three hours’ sunning and outing the train was again boarded, where a most pleasant surprise awaited the guests in the form of a luncheon, in the discussion of which the two hours back to the city was passed. It was unanimously voted by the party that Tuxedo Park, even in its present unfinished state, is already an institution, and there can be no manner of doubt that society has now stamped its approval of the scheme.
 
30 May 1886, New-York (NY) Daily Tribune, pg. 2, col. 1:
TUXEDO READY FOR GUESTS
MR. LORILLARD’S PART TO OPEN ON JUNE 1.
A CLUB-HOUSE PERFECT IN APPOINTMENTS—WONDERS WROUGHT IN A WILDERNESS.
 
Ju;y 1887, The Ladies’ Home Journal and Practical Housekeeper, “Mid-Summer Styles” by Mrs. J. H. Lambert, pg. 10, col. 2:
THE TUXEDO COSTUME.
The well-known founder of the Tuxedo club and park, Pierre Lorillard, decides who shall, and shall not be admitted to Tuxedo, and it is whispered that he is slightly critical regarding the attire of the lady members, who are generally most elegantly and appropriately dress.
 
The favorite suit there worn is said to be the Tuxedo costume, an exclusive creation of a New York house; and is because of its coloring and texture, especially adapted for lawn tennis, yachting, rowing, gymnasiums, the mountains, and all athletic an out-door sports.
 
The odd and handsome Tuxedo suits are of the finest worsted materials, regular knit, in pleasing contrasting colors; for instance the cap, blouse, skirt and sash are all finished with border or band in stripes of the decorative hue; a dress of navy blue has stripes of scarlet; another in navy is enlivened in white; on royal blue skirts scarlet or white stripes are shown; and very pretty is one dress in sliver gray with stripes of blue, and in novel black suits the orange stripes create striking results; white on cream, stripes of blue, or of black, form a most decided contrast.