The conventional wear for men in the late 19th century was a white tie worn with a tail coat.

At the 1886 Autumn Ball, Griswold Lorillard ( a famous-man-about-town) appeared at the Tuxedo Park Country Club New York, wearing a short black coat with shiny satin lapels.

The gathering was shocked to see the bold new unconventional dress!

Lorillard explained that his dinner jacket was the more formal version of the British Smoking Jacket.

The name of the club Tuxedo came to denote the daring new fashion launched there by Griswold Lorillard.