In interational style ballroom dance a full tail suit is still the most common outfit for the male. Although some countrie do allow a double brested "lounge suit" with regular shirt and tie this is still not common. The tail suite still is what 95% of dancesport cometitiors wear!

Why: tradition I think. Where the tail suit has died out in other walks of life: unless you are invited to a formal event at Buckingham Palace that is! The tail suit looks good on a wide range of figure types.

For such a "uniform" item there are quite a few decisions to make when buying a tail suit.Remember a suite of the rack will not do: they have to be designed specifically for ballroom dancing because of the cut accross the shoulder which allows the suit to sit properly when the arms are raised in the clasic "ballroom hold".

Tail Suit Colour

You have the choice of 2: black or middnight blue. Black goes with evey colour of ladies dress: enough said! You do get a variety of shades of black though: inlcuded a self stripe (NOT a pn-stripe). The self stripe is effective on those with the less than perfect figure.

Tail Suit Trousers

Older style trousers used to have a bib arrangement which went over the shoulder and did not require braces. These have gone out of favour and most these days are high waisted - gives a better leg line: and are held up with braces