Why a Nice Tuxedo Doesn’t Cut It on the Red Carpet Anymore

In Hollywood, men have historically taken a backseat on the red carpet — relegating themselves to unremarkable black tuxedos, while the women wore gowns that were written into fashion history.

One look at the red carpets so far this awards season, and it’s clear those days are long in the past. At the Critics Choice Awards last month, Ethan Hawke, a heartthrob from the 1990s known more for his on-screen brooding than his real-life fashion sense, wore a blue Bode suit with white floral embroidery. The leading men who opt for traditional suiting are fusing old-school sartorial codes with contemporary flourishes. For this year’s Golden Globes, Michael B. Jordan paired a brown Prada suit with a muted yellow dress shirt; Jeremy Allen White added a pencil-thin ribbon bow tie and pinned a white lily to his black velvet Louis Vuitton tuxedo jacket; and Paul Mescal wore a wing-collar white dress shirt sans tie under his black Gucci suit.

At the Grammys, which typically lean funkier than the film award shows, country star Shaboozey styled his shawl-collared Ralph Lauren tuxedo jacket with dark, rustic denim, a gold-buckled belt and a form-hugging waistcoat; best-new-artist nominee Sombr opted for a gilded metallic Valentino suit with burgundy flecks and a sheer lace blouse; and Bad Bunny wore in a black velvet Schiaparelli suit with a short, cinch-waist coat that had contrast stitching on the right lapel and corset lacing along the back.

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Modern male celebrities are experimental on the red carpet thanks, in part, to expanding gender norms. And as the menswear market has grown—global menswear sales jumped 29 percent to $455 billion since 2020— more brands want to design eye-catching finery for male stars they see as viable ambassadors who can drive sales like their female counterparts.

The current era of refined, but still playful, style on the red carpet mirrors the minimalism that pervades menswear, where subtle pops of colour and slightly deconstructed tailoring are favoured over garish statement pieces.

“There’s just so much space to play,” said Luca Kingston, who styles burgeoning male stars like “Heated Rivalry” actor Francois Arnaud, Mark ​​Eydelshteyn of “Anora,” and “Final Destination: Bloodlines” standout Teo Briones. “As long as you do it artfully and intentionally, there aren’t rules.”

The tastefully adventurous red carpet looks are easier to translate for real-life consumers who are mimicking that approach as they once again embrace formal attire after years of casualisation, said Jeremy Langmead, brand director at Mr Porter. BNP Paribas analyst Laurent Vasilescu said in a January note that Google trends for running sneakers were decreasing, while silhouettes like loafers were on the rise.

“There is a return to dressing up because you don’t have to, and therefore, it becomes more fun,” Langmead said.

Breaking Norms

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, male stars confined themselves to wearing black tuxedos to avoid having their manhood questioned. As the downsides of toxic masculinity have been illuminated in the last decade, many have embraced femininity in their style to distance themselves from that notion — an ever-important counterpoint to rising conservatism in politics and mainstream culture.

A new class of male stars, including Timothée Chalamet, Jacob Elordi and Colman Domingo, have led the way on changing these norms on the red carpet, trading nondescript suiting for ensembles that subvert ideas of traditional masculinity. At last year’s Oscars, Chalamet wore a buttery yellow Givenchy double-breasted blazer with a matching silk shirt and leather pants while Domingo was in a red two-toned Valentino tuxedo jacket with a matching sash draped around his waist.

More broadly, there’s a wider assortment of guys wearing suits without shirts, pants that cinch at the waist and balloon on the bottom, bright hues like fuchsia and delicate accessories like encrusted brooches. Kingston said his male clients now send him moodboards that include adornments such as lace gloves and scarves worn as chokers. They’re also softening the language they use to describe how they want to look, he added.

“My very young clients use words like ‘This is so pretty,’” Kingston said. “I used to have to be so careful about the words I would use with men; ‘This is cool. This is handsome. This is rugged, leading man,’ to make them still feel okay.”

The embrace of flashier style is also, in part, because the playbook that’s worked for A-list actresses like Zendaya — whose head-turning themed red carpet looks, like the now-famous vintage metallic Mugler bodysuit for the London premiere of “Dune Part Two,” has made her an in-demand face for brands like Louis Vuitton, Bulgari and On — has trickled down to their male counterparts.

Luxury giants are increasingly tapping rising male stars as brand ambassadors. In January, Dior announced red carpet standouts Lakeith Stanfield and Josh O’Connor as ambassadors. Chanel appointed ubiquitous fashion veteran ASAP Rocky as a face of the brand last December. Jacob Elordi’s been starring in Bottega Veneta campaigns, and wearing the brand’s louche, oversized tailoring on the red carpet, since 2024.

“There’s huge pressure for those actors to look good and get noticed by their own industry,” Langmead said. “Some of them are really hoping to get campaigns, because that’s a revenue stream they might not have at the moment.”

Brands are expanding the types of products they’ll put on male stars. For his Golden Globes red carpet debut, “Heated Rivalry” star Hudson Williams wore a cream Giorgio Armani dinner jacket with a matching cumberbund and silk popped-collar dress shirt nearly unbuttoned to the navel to reveal a dainty gold, diamond-encrusted Bvlgari snake necklace. Williams’ Bvlgari-sponsored Instagram post featuring his look for the event surpassed 1 million likes in less than 24 hours.

“Placements on men have been pretty traditional,” said Anastasia Walker, a New York-based stylist who styled Williams for the Golden Globes. “With all this differentiation of silhouettes and looks and styles that people are playing with, it’s opening up the doors for brands to see things done in a very different way.”

The Trickle Down

As male celebrities are increasingly expected to wow on the red carpet, they are looking to be daring without being outlandish in the hopes they’ll get noticed by brands and casting agents, without losing the veneer of a classically appealing leading man, according to Luke Meagher, a fashion commentator known for his red carpet and runway reviews on his YouTube channel HauteLeMode.

“Subtle little moments, like a changing of a lapel, or a changing of the way that you would do a tie, or a baggier trouser instead of slim fit, still keeps you in that leading man trope, while also not feeling stale and banal and boring,” he said.

That calculated restraint is showing up in how regular men shop for dressier clothes. Langmead said Mr Porter’s clients are gravitating to brands with tactfully bold tailoring like the Parisian startup Husbands, which sells ‘70s-inspired double-breasted blazers with wide lapels and flared trousers.

Even if they aren’t confident enough to sport diamond-encrusted brooches or cascading pearls, men are taking a bolder approach when getting ready for formal events. Meagher noted that his non-fashion-obsessed friends will ask for advice on how to break out of bland, neutral-toned occasionwear. Google searches for suits in colours like rust, olive and yellow were up 115 percent year on year in January, according to Trendalytics.

“It’s like a diet dandy,” Meagher said. “They’re not going to be a Colman Domingo whatsoever, but there’s subtle freedoms that now they feel they can take just a little bit more because of the celebrities they see.”