How To Dress For a Dinner Event

Dressing for a dinner event can be tricky for some, but it can be made easier by paying attention to the following things:

• The type of event: is it a birthday dinner for a friend? A scholarship dinner? A banquet? 
• The restaurant: what type of restaurant will you be going to? Is it a more casual or upscale restaurant? 
• The audience: Who will be in attendance? Anyone (crush maybe) you particularly want to impress? Someone you have to impress (a boss, interviewer, etc)

In efforts to keep things brief I will dive right in and give several tips / ideas for most dinner scenarios one will encounter

Casual Affairs

Some events, like birthday dinners at more casual restaurants don't require you appear in suit and tie attire: For the more casual restaurant, these are some examples of appropriate looks: 

A trendy denim shirt paired with cargo pants is a simple, yet nice looking outfit that can be worn many places including a casual dinner event.

Puffer vests have become rather trendy recently and pairing a solid colored one with a flannel shirt with a matching solid color in it would make for a nice casual outfit to wear to someone's dinner.

Semi formal-formal dinner events:

If you are attending a birthday dinner at a more upscale location or something like a dinner banquet or scholarship dinner, stepping in with the looks provided above would have you looking way too under-dressed.  For these type of events you will need to dress up a little more. Here are some ideas:

A look similar to this will suffice for most any semi-formal dinner event. If you are going in for a special interview or meeting consider adding a navy blazer like the one below:

Adding a cardigan with grey stripes adds variation and a pattern to the look while still keeping it classic looking. If you go for an all black cardigan make the tie have another color besides black in it

While these are certainly not all the options one could use when getting ready for a dinner event I hope these outfits will inspire or help someone out in the near future! More to come

Leslie Ellis Jr. (L.J.)
-The Men's Circle