Lagos
Tee Apparel
Bespoke suiting with the discipline black tie needs, and they make their own shoes — which is where most black-tie looks fall apart.
- Best for
- Full bespoke dinner jackets and evening shoes
- Price guide
- £££ (bespoke, POA)
The Evening
Black Tie
Dress code — Black Tie
The Brief
The strictest code in menswear, and the easiest to get right once you know the rules.
The Guidance
Midnight navy reads richer than black under evening light. Grosgrain lapel, no vents or double, and a hand-tied bow — never pre-tied. Patent or highly polished oxfords only.
Find hands worth trusting
The Alternative
Evening dressing does not have to mean a dinner suit. A wide-leg black look, cut long and worn with quiet shoes, holds a formal room just as well — and it is the version I reach for when I want presence without costume.
How To Dress
What I have learned the hard way
Etiquette
Black tie in Britain still means a dinner jacket after six. Traditional Nigerian dress is a legitimate equivalent — but the formality level has to match, not undercut it.
If you wear an agbada to black tie, it should be plain and dark. Save embroidery for occasions that ask for it.
Bow tie, hand-tied. A pre-tied one is visible from across a room.
Shoes matter more than the jacket at this level: polished, closed, and not the pair you wore to the office.
Colours & Fabric
Midnight navy reads blacker than black under artificial light — the best cloth choice for a dinner jacket.
Black, midnight, deep forest and burgundy velvet. Nothing lighter unless the invitation says creative black tie.
Keep the shirt bone or white; grandad collars only if the whole look is deliberately traditional.
One texture allowed — grosgrain, satin lapel or velvet — never all three.
Mistakes I See
Treating black tie as 'a nice suit'. A notch-lapel business suit with a bow tie is the most common error in the room.
A dinner jacket bought off the peg and never altered. This is the outfit where fit is the entire point.
Novelty cummerbunds, patterned bow ties, and anything described as 'fun'.
Trainers, however expensive.
Step By Step
Worked backwards from the date
This is the order I do it in, and the point at which each decision stops being reversible. Start at the top the day the invitation arrives.
01
As soon as the invitation lands
Read the dress code literally, then check the venue
“Black tie” at a livery hall, a City dinner and an awards night in a hotel ballroom are three different rooms. Look the venue up. If it is a members’ club or a livery hall, assume the strict reading: dinner jacket, black bow tie, no lounge suit. If the invitation says creative or alternative black tie, native dress and a velvet jacket are both open to you.
If the invitation is silent and the event is after six, dress to the strict reading. Nobody has ever been embarrassed by being the correctly dressed one.
02
8–10 weeks out
Decide dinner jacket or native — not both
Choose one and commit. The dinner jacket route means midnight navy or black, one lapel facing, a hand-tied bow tie and proper evening shoes. The native route means a plain, dark agbada or kaftan with minimal embroidery, a well-blocked fila and the same shoe discipline. Trying to hybridise the two — a dinner jacket over a native trouser, embroidery on an evening jacket — is where the look falls apart.
03
6–8 weeks out
Commission or alter, and book the shoes first
If you are having a jacket made, this is the window: cloth choice, first fitting, then two weeks for corrections. If you already own a dinner jacket, book the alteration now — shoulders, sleeve length, waist suppression and trouser hem. Order or resole the shoes in the same week. Evening shoes are the most commonly forgotten item and the fastest to give you away.
An off-the-peg dinner jacket that has never been altered reads as borrowed. This is the one outfit where fit is the entire point.
04
2–3 weeks out
Assemble the small pieces
Bone or white shirt (marcella or fine poplin, never a business shirt with a spread collar and buttons where studs should be), black silk bow tie you can tie yourself, black silk socks over the calf, and a waist covering if the jacket is single-breasted — cummerbund or low-cut waistcoat. Braces rather than a belt. Keep jewellery to a watch you would wear to dinner, or none.
05
The week before
Dress fully, in front of a mirror, once
Full kit, shoes on, bow tie tied. Sit down. Raise your arms. Check the shirt cuff shows a clean half-inch and the trouser breaks once. Practise the bow tie until it takes ninety seconds. Press the shirt yourself or have it done — hotel steam on the night is not a plan.
Pre-tied bow ties are visible from across a room. Learn the knot; it takes one evening.
06
On the night
Arrive early, check the room, then relax
Jacket stays on until the host takes theirs off. Bow tie stays tied all evening — the undone-tie photograph belongs to the very end of the night, if at all. Carry nothing in the jacket pockets except a phone in the inside breast.
Three Worked Examples
What I would actually wear
Written out garment by garment at three levels of spend. Figures are indicative UK market ranges, not quotes.
The correct minimum
- Rented or off-the-peg midnight navy dinner jacket, altered at shoulder and hem
- Bone marcella shirt, studs, turn-down collar
- Hand-tied black silk bow tie
- Black Oxfords, polished properly
- Black over-the-calf silk socks
Indicative UK market range: £350–£700 including alterations
Renting is not a failure. Renting and not altering is. Spend the difference on the shoes.
The version I wear
- Black dinner jacket, grosgrain-faced peak lapel, single button
- White shirt, no pocket square competing with the lapel
- Hand-tied black bow tie
- Plain black Derbys or Oxfords, no ornament
- Braces, no belt, no watch on show
Indicative UK market range: £1,200–£2,500 made to measure
This is the dinner jacket I wore to a City dinner in the What I Wore entry. Midnight navy would have photographed blacker; I would order it that way next time.
Native, done at black-tie level
- Plain dark agbada or kaftan set — midnight, black or deep forest
- Minimal or no embroidery at neck and cuff
- Well-blocked fila in the same tone
- Polished black slip-ons or Oxfords, never sandals
- Nothing metallic
Indicative UK market range: £800–£2,000 made to order
Native dress is a legitimate black-tie equivalent in Britain — but only at this level of restraint. Embroidery drops the register to Owambe.
Designers I Recommend For This
Not every house. These ones.
A short list, chosen for this occasion specifically — with what each house is actually good at, and who it suits.
London, United Kingdom
Soboye
For creative black tie in London — African cloth handled with enough restraint to hold its own in a formal room.
- Best for
- Creative black tie; men who want an alternative to the tuxedo
- Price guide
- ££–£££
Lagos
Lucky Enemuo Afrika
If you are wearing traditional to a black-tie event, this is the level of finish it needs. Ask for plain, dark, minimal embroidery.
- Best for
- Traditional dress at formal evening events
- Price guide
- £105–£345 (indicative, Lagos pricing)
Do This Next
Three things, this week
01
Book the shoes and the alteration in the same week
These are the two things that decide whether the outfit looks yours. Everything else can be bought later.
02
If you are going native, ask for plain and dark in writing
Tailors default to embroidery on ceremonial garments. Say “no embroidery, black-tie register” in the brief and repeat it at the first fitting.
03
Learn the bow tie before the week of
One evening in front of a mirror. It is the single highest-return skill in evening dressing.
The Definitive Guide
Black tie, Nigerian-style — dinner jacket or native, detail by detail
What to do next
01 — The introduction
Send me the date and the dress code. I will tell you what I would wear and which two houses I would ask.
Tell me the occasion, the date and your budget bracket. Within 24 hours you get back: two or three houses I would actually approach and why those and not others, the alterations to insist on for your build, a realistic timeline for your date, and a short written brief you can hand to the tailor at the first fitting.
- No fee, no commission, nothing sold here.
- If nobody I trust fits your date or budget, I say so.
- Read by me, answered by me.
02 — If the date is further off