The Ultimate Guide to Rocking a Prom Event with a Burgundy Prom Suit

 

When it’s time for your high school Junior or Senior class, usually during May in the USA, you will want to be elegantly dressed for the promenade dance and socializing with your colleagues.  You would want to create your exquisite fashion statement, but without being gaudy, tacky, or flamboyant.

The school year in the lower 48 ends in the early summer and it’s usually warm; therefore, you will want a lightweight cool fabric.

When you live in Alaska, it might be cooler at this time of year and you will want a warmer fabric.  Those living in Hawaii will have idyllic weather the entire year for ideal shopping for fabrics.

Not only can the young men wear their burgundy prom suits to their prom, they can wear the burgundy jacket with black trousers and mix the two pieces with other colors too.

If you like a monotone color—where you are burgundy from head to socks and shoes—go with it because it is an appealing and sophisticated fashion statement.

Fabric

Many varieties of fabrics are used for pant suits with the most common being wool.  Worsted wool are fibers spun to be a smooth durable cloth.  Woolens are not spun the same as for worsted to construct tweeds, gabardine, flannel, fresco, and more.

With different weights and feel, wool has long been linked to winter.  That’s no longer true since the fibers are made finer for wearing in summer, spring, and fall.

Wool can be blended with cashmere as well.  A cheaper blend is polyester.  Linen is blended for hot weather in the southern USA states.

Style and Cut

Burgundy is a reddish-purple color and men look attractive wearing it.  It isn’t appropriate to wear a burgundy prom suit to a board meeting at the corporate office, but it will introduce new excitement in your evening wear closet.  Burgundy is perfect for proms and weddings any time of the year.

For a striking appearance, try a streamlined appearance in a slim cut matching pants and jacket.  You will look elegant and cultured in one of the debonair burgundy pant suits trending today elevating your look at prom.

A suit needs to be balanced so that the jacket does not need to be buttoned.  The fit will not be too loose or too tight and the shape of the jacket drapes without wrinkling from strain starting at the neck to the shoulders and chest.

The two most important cuts are:

• Single-breasted suits; a more relaxed and professional look, have the front sides overlap very slightly having a single column of buttons.

• Double-breasted suits; a more conservative look, have the large overlap of the left and right front sides with two rows of buttons.

Jacket Front Buttons

Single-breasted jackets— have two to three buttons.  One or four buttons are uncommon.  Black tie dinner jackets normally have just one button.

The top button will usually line up with your natural waist.  A hidden button will hold the underlap in place.  Men’s shirts and jackets button left-over-right while women’s button right-over-left—did you know that?

Except for zoot suits, you will rarely find a suit with more than four buttons.  Due to the longer length of zoot suits, they can have six or more buttons.  Young men today still like to wear these suits for their specific fashion statement.

Zoot Suits

Zoot suits are popular with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers and long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders for the jacket.

These are especially well-liked by African Americans, Italian Americans, Filipino Americans, and Latinos since the 1940s in the USA.  You can complete your look with a feathered felt hat, outrageous long watch chain, and pointed-toe French-style shoes.

For a bit of history, Jim Carey wore the zoot suit in his hilarious movie, The Mask in 1994, depicting the popular Jazz Age of the 40s in Harlem, New York, in banana yellow that is now available in a burgundy prom suit.

Double-breasted jackets— have the outer half of the buttons functional.  The second row is for display requiring the buttons to be in pairs.  Six buttons are conventional with two to button and the last pair drift above the overlap.

Tailoring

You can have your burgundy prom suit tailor-made where you choose the fabric, color, button style, pockets, and vent.  It will fit you perfectly but be costly for your prom.  A suit off-the-rack altered to your size usually needing the pants to be hemmed, is a less costly way to buy a prom pant suit.

For formal events, single- and double-breasted burgundy jackets are desirable.  They can have from two to four buttons on the sleeve cuff that do not open.

Another style is the tuxedo jacket made from plush burgundy cotton-velvet that’s ideal for prom, clubs, and dinner dates with your girl or family.

These are tailored for a slim fit and have satin shawl lapels in a contrasting color such as gray or black with satin at the top of the front welt pockets.  This jacket is one-button with three internal pockets and fully lined.  The materials will need to be dry cleaned.

This would look elegant paired with black pants and embroidered shoes.

Jacket Pockets

Nearly all jackets have an assortment of inner pockets with two most important outer pockets.  These can be flap, patch, or jetted/besom pockets.  The patch pocket is usually on velvet dinner jackets and summer linen suits.

The most standard side pocket is the flap style that covers the top of the pocket.  The jetted pocket is the most formal having a small strip of fabric that tapes the top and bottom of the pocket slit.  This is usually made on dinner jackets and formal suits.

The breast pocket is located on the top left side only where you can put a colorful smartly folded handkerchief.

Burgundy Styling For Men

When you wear the burgundy prom suit jacket, tie or no tie, silk pocket squares will put the finishing touch to the look of your jacket.  When you love burgundy, you can wear it with a solid burgundy tie, or a harmonizing color such as gold gray, or cream.

Notched, Peaked, and Shawl Jacket Lapels 

Your Dad probably taught you the differences in lapels, but if you forgot, here’s an overview.  Each lapel style has differences and worn with different suit cuts.

Notched or stepped labels are the most customary of the three styles and normally just on single-breasted jackets, the most informal style.  Where the lapel meets the color it will have a 75- to 90-degree notch.

Peaked or pointed lapels mostly found on double-breasted jackets, have the sharp edges that point up to the shoulders, hence, pointed.  This lapel is often made on single-breasted jackets besides.

Shawl or trick lapels are Mandarin and other idiosyncratic styles from the Victorian period of informal evening attire.  This style lapel is not seen on jackets except for some dinner suits and tuxes.  For your prom, wear any of the lapel styles and look striking in your choice. 

Don’t forget that lapels have a buttonhole too for adding a boutonnière or pin to the lapel.  This is the male counterpart of the female’s corsage.  It is worn for your prom formal event and usually has a small fern of small white baby’s breath flowers within the arrangement.  No, it’s not being girlish.

The single-breasted jacket has only one hole on the left lapel.  Double-breasted jackets have one hole on each lapel with the flower being worn only on the left side.

Suit Jacket Sleeves

All styles of suit jackets have three or four buttons on each cuff that are sewn closed and will not unbutton.  However, on high-end or hand-tailored suits, the buttons function to open and can be of two buttons.

Jacket Vents

There are three styles of jacket vents.  A vent can be at the center bottom rear or tail of the jacket.

The British double-vented style has one vent on each side of the jacket back side.  Then there is the ventless style on Italian tailored suits that are predominant on dinner jackets.  Vents are useful when using your pockets that will change the hang of the jacket; therefore, vents are on most of today’s jackets in the USA.

Vests

Many guys like to wear a vest with their two-piece suit or trousers with a separate jacket.  Trending now as in the past, pocket watches are worn in the pocket on a chain, where one end of the chain is put through the vest’s middle button hole.

This eliminates the need to wear a wrist watch.  The bottom button is left unfastened to easily bend and sit down.  A vest is not worn with a double-breasted jacket.  A vest is not worn for formal white tie events.

Trousers

The burgundy prom suit trousers are made of the same fabric and color as the jacket.  Sports jackets are worn with unmatching trousers.  Suit trousers are also called dress pants in the USA and are made for formal or semi-formal wear.  They are made primarily of wool, polyester, and other natural and synthetic fabrics.

These have a crease in the pant legs with one or more pleats or no pleats.  The styles have changed from wide legs, and bell-bottoms to a more tapered slim-legged style.

Waistbands are low-rise and some even rest on the hips.  The length of the pants bottom is the break—where the lower pants leg front seam is longer than the back height to the shoes.  Most men like the pants bottom to sit slightly on the arch of their foot.

The trousers can be made with belt loops or made for suspenders.  The suspenders attach to the waistband of the trousers with buttons on the outside or inside or with clasps at the ends of the suspenders that pinch into the waist of the trousers.

Final Thoughts

A burgundy prom suit can be a great choice to make a unique style statement, but you need to be smart about completing your look well and get the other style elements right as well.