What to wear to a fall wedding as a male guest: flannel

Wear grey or brown flannel to a fall wedding, and save the dinner jacket, first cut in 1865, for black tie. Even that jacket began as the relaxed option.

The Prince of Wales, Bertie to his friends, wanted a short coat he could wear at informal dinners at Sandringham. His tailor and friend, Henry Poole, shortened the tailcoat and presented it in celestial blue. Poole's ledgers, kept since 1846, show nothing like it before.

At a fall wedding the cloth is the dress code. Flannel, tweed and suede say autumn before any colour does, so a brown flannel suit beats a black one. Black feels safe, yet in daylight a black suit reads as evening or a funeral, while texture tells the room you dressed for the season.

Quick facts

• The dinner jacket: cut by Henry Poole in 1865, in celestial blue
• Flannel: Fox Brothers, established in 1772, credited as its original makers
• Harris Tweed: stamped with the Orb since 1911, handwoven in the Outer Hebrides
• Shoes: more than 200 operations over 8 weeks at Crockett & Jones, founded in 1879
• Cloth to choose from: 6,000 samples at Henry Poole
• On within: 29 men's suits and blazers, 53 grey pants and 25 brown, priced in CAD, read 27 September 2026, and they ship abroad

For black tie, or black tie optional

Black tie means a dinner suit in black or midnight blue, which Henry Poole still calls "the universal standard for men's eveningwear". Americans later gave the British dinner jacket another name, the tuxedo. Read what the black tie dress code asks for if the card says it.

If you own no dinner suit, rent one, and nobody will ask. Reviewers of Andrew's Formals in Toronto name tuxedo rental 85 times and groomsmen 37.

At black tie optional, the dinner suit is still right. Without one, wear the darkest suit you own.

For cocktail attire, or a card with no dress code

This is where flannel wins. Fox Brothers, credited as its original maker, began in 1772, when Thomas Fox became a partner in his grandfather Thomas Were's serge business in Wellington, Somerset.

During the First World War the mill produced 8,000 miles of khaki cloth. Fox calls flannel "this luxuriously milled cloth" and finishes it in four stages: scouring, milling, cropping and pressing. That milled surface is the texture a fall wedding asks for.

Wear it in mid grey or brown, as a suit or as odd trousers under a jacket. The grey pants shelf runs 53 pieces from CAD 120 to 1,600, and brown runs 25 pieces up to CAD 2,000. For the jacket, Undercover's Eye Button Felted Wool Blazer in grey is 100% wool, CAD 2,295.

For the barn, the vineyard or the garden

A daytime wedding needs no suit. A tweed jacket over flannel trousers, or over a knit (a roll neck, if the barn is cold), shows you read the card.

In 1909 the Harris Tweed Association formed to register the Orb as a trademark, and stamping began in 1911. Since the 1993 Act of Parliament, Harris Tweed must be handwoven by islanders at their homes in the Outer Hebrides, from pure virgin wool dyed and spun there.

Each length comes off a treadle loom, and the Orb is ironed on to the back of the cloth only after an inspector passes it.

For the shoes

Wear brown suede with flannel, or a dark leather derby, and sneakers only when the couple ask for them. Suede sounds fragile. Crockett & Jones, founded in 1879 by two brothers in law, James Crockett and Charles Jones, calls its suede leathers "strong, durable" and comfortable.

Its Goodyear welted shoes take more than 200 separate operations over 8 weeks, and a welted shoe can be resoled without harm to the uppers. Tricker's, founded in 1829, counts 265 processes over the same 8 weeks.

Guidi's Classic Derby in black is leather in the upper, the lining and the sole. It is CAD 1,375 (about US$972), one of 10 pairs of Guidi lace ups and derbies.

At a fall wedding the cloth says autumn before the colour does.

For the man with time before the date

A tailor is the other answer, in any city. At Henry Poole the cloth is cut by hand with extra left at certain seams, the inlays, so a suit can be let out later if your weight changes. Ask any tailor whether yours has them.

Huntsman, at 11 Savile Row, dates itself to 1849. In Miami, reviewers of Damiani name wedding attire 8 times, and in Toronto, reviewers of Sydney's on Queen Street West name the wedding suit 37 times.

Read what a tailor can and cannot change before the first fitting, and how to measure a blazer that fits before you buy off the rack.

Reading the card

The dress code line, read twice, says one of four things.

• Black tie: a dinner suit, black or midnight blue, rented if need be.
• Black tie optional: the dinner suit if you have one, otherwise your darkest suit.
• Cocktail, or nothing at all: the flannel suit, mid grey or brown, with suede shoes.
• Daytime, garden or barn: a tweed jacket over flannel trousers or a knit, no suit.

Every within piece named here ships from Toronto by Canada Post, UPS or DHL, duty unpaid. Shipping is free from CAD 400 to the United States and CAD 800 elsewhere. If you are going as a couple, wedding guest dresses, for the person going with you takes the other half.

Common questions

What color suit should I wear to a fall wedding?

Wear navy, charcoal, mid grey, brown or olive, in flannel or tweed if you can. Keep black for after dark or a black tie card, and leave white and ivory to the couple.

What shoes should I wear to a fall wedding?

Wear brown suede or a dark leather derby, and sneakers only if the couple ask for them. A Goodyear welted pair can be resoled without harm to the uppers, and shoe construction: what resoles and what will not shows how to tell.

What can men wear to a wedding with no suit?

Wear a tweed jacket over flannel trousers or a knit, which suits a daytime, garden or barn wedding. For cocktail or black tie, a suit or a dinner suit is still the answer.

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