Let us pop back to your room now and tell you what things are worn by
the young men at the various dances.
If you live in a large city and are connected socially with a very
formal crowd say in New Orleans, New York, Charleston or San Francisco,
to the formal evening dance you should wear full evening dress.
That, however, is not a hard and fast rule. The most acceptable costume
at present is the dinner jacket for almost every occasion. (Foreigners
deplore our calling it a tuxedo.) It is the proper costume at any
formal gathering attended by the younger generation.
Young people have generally made hash of the formal ideas of their
elders and this is just another manifestation of their desire to be
comfortable at the cost of convention.
Informal evening wear is as flexible as a garter snake. In college
towns young people attend the dances in everything from business suits
to sport costumes. The best thing to wear in any case wherever you are
going is a tuxedo and then, come what may, you will always have the
assurance of being properly dressed.
At a private dance you can use your own judgment unless, of course, you
have been informed by some means or other that it is to be formal.
Very well, let us suppose that you have consulted some older person
about the details of dress and that we are at last at the dance.
It is now time for us to discuss the various types of male wallflower
that are present.