Smoking: where does it come from?
The tuxedo jacket was originally worn, as the name suggests, for smoking in the Victorian era and was used to protect clothing from ashes and odours It evolved from a long dress or dressing gown worn mainly to keep warm at a time when central heating and insulated houses did not yet exist. Dresses were then made from a variety of sumptuous fabrics, including patterned silk, but as the garment became specialised for smoking use only, the jacket became shorter and heavier fabrics such as velvet became the norm, as the burning ashes could damage the silk more easily. Dinner jacket jackets were adorned with a variety of extras such as the brandebourgs we see today on Matthew Cookson dinner jacket jackets and belts we also see today on Matthew Cookson dressing gowns. Edward VII had a tuxedo jacket made by Henry Poole in London, which greatly increased public interest in these garments and eventually they crossed the Atlantic when an English visitor wore one to the Tuxedo Park Country Club in New York, causing such a sensation that the fashion took off in the United States where it evolved into what Americans call a “tuxedo”, which in England was called a dinner jacket, a more formal jacket with buttons rather than toggles or brandebourgs. This is why in continental Europe the dinner jacket is now called a ‘dinner jacket’.
Smoking jacket Matthew Cookson
Matthew Cookson dinner jacket jackets can all be customised with contrasting coloured linings, fittings and finishes, and Matthew Cookson continues the tradition of beautiful fabrics and quality craftsmanship. They are now often used as an alternative to dinner jackets for sophisticated evenings out on both sides of the Atlantic.
