THE TALE OF TAILS
By W BRO STEPHEN DALLY
A history of evening dress Masons are generally associated with wearing a dinner suit or the more formal tails at lodge but why is this so?
T
ails or a tailcoat is a coat that has the rear section or skirt cut away and historically was cut in this manner to make it easier when riding a horse. It can be traced back to the military in the 17th century. Although continental and British armies generally wore similar uniforms the interest is in English armies going back to Cromwell’s day. English armies wore red overcoats with a waistcoat (vest) underneath. By the 17th century, due to the coat tails getting in the way when loading and firing a musket, a centre vent was cut into the skirt of the overcoat to enable the skirt to be folded back. By the 18th century the folded back coat tails had become a permanent part of the soldier dress.
An 18th century men’s tailcoat 32
FREEMASON SEPTEMBER 2015
By the 18th Century the folded back coat tails had become a permanent part of the soldier dress.
As all British regiments wore red with the exception of the artillery and cavalry, a distinguishing system had been introduced as they were only known by their regimental number on the order of battle – for example the Grenadier Guards were the 1st Foot Guards. A system of colour was introduced known as facings and lapels, cuffs and the folded back portion of the overcoat wore a regiment’s colour. By the late 18th and early 19th century, male civilians started to wear coats that copied the military overcoat with the skirts cut back to make it easier when horse riding and it became a fashion style known as the swallowtail or claw hammer. By 1850 men wore an evening dress that had evolved to tails that finished just below the knee with the front cut squarely away. The coat and trousers were made from black cloth and a shawl collar with silk facings completed the coat. A white starched waistcoat, butterfly collared shirt, studs and a white bow tie and white gloves completed the dress. By the late 19th century a new form of male evening dress appeared – the ‘dinner suit’ or ‘tuxedo’. British tailors claimed that Edward VII, when he was Prince of Wales
became fed up with attending dinners in tails, noted the short jackets worn by military officers in formal dress and designed the dinner suit! An American, a Mr Potter, asked the Prince what to wear in the evening and the Prince sent him to his tailor who made him a dinner suit. Mr