How Not To Look Boring At Your Next Big Event

2016 Tommaso Boddi

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The comforting thing about wearing a tuxedo is that it's really, really hard for a grown man to look bad in one. Even with the kind you can rent at the mall (which we would not advise using—they never fit the way they're supposed to) it's nearly impossible not to look elegant when you're wearing black tie.

Of course the pitfall of wearing a tux, especially at a fancy event, is that you run the risk of looking like every other man in the room. If everyone looks like James Bond, is looking like James Bond even special anymore?

But as we observed at the Creative Arts Emmys in Los Angeles on Sunday, there are two ways to set yourself apart from the rest of the monkey-suited crowd. The first is making sure your black tie kit fits better than anything else in your closet. Chef, author, and TV host Anthony Bourdain demonstrated this by showing up to the event in a tuxedo that looks like it was tailored to within a millimeter of his slim frame. Combining a trim waist with a strong, square shoulder, this tux makes him look lean and powerful at the same time. (Whether that had anything to do with him actually winning an Emmy last night remains unknown, but it can't have hurt.)

If you and your tailor can't achieve as perfect a fit, you can always go for flair. That's how scientists Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson made their red carpet looks distinct. Nye went for a white dinner jacket accented with a black lapel, and he topped it all off with a polka dotted black-and-white bow tie that slyly references all the stars in our galaxy. Tyson's tribute to our place in the universe wasn't quite so indirect. He paired his tuxedo with a vest depicting a whirling cosmos where planets and galaxies are in disarray. It's an ironic choice for a guy who works as a planetarium director for a living, but fashion doesn't always have to make sense, does it?

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In fact the end of the day, the only thing your clothes have to do is make you feel good. And whether you get there by obsessing over how your jacket falls or finding an accessory that makes people smile, both routes can help you stand out from a uniform designed to make men blend in.

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