White Tie - Related Forms of Dress

Related Forms of Dress

White ties were historically worn by clerics and in the professions that formerly were filled by priests and minor clerics. In various forms they are still worn as part of:

• Clerical dress (by persons in holy orders)
• Clerical dress (by clerks etc. in Parliament)
• Court dress (in courts of law)
• Court dress (in the royal court)
• Academic dress (in the older universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, St David's College and St Andrews)
• The form of school dress known as 'stick-ups' is used to recognize senior pupils of note at Eton College
• The head boy at Harrow School has the distinction of wearing full white tie on Sundays and formal events; the School Captain of Whitgift School 'and his deputies' are also entitled to the privilege of wearing white tie at the school's Graduation Ball and the annual Prefects' Dinner.

White ties are not usually worn with military mess dress, where black ties are most often worn even with the most formal variants, though there are exceptions. In the Royal Navy, mess dress requires a white waistcoat but a black tie.