Prom Outfits for Men: What to Wear to Your School Prom  (2024)

It’s your prom and you can’t contain the excitement. It’s gonna be so much fun. Your friends will be there and so will your crush. This means you have to wear the best prom outfits for men especially if you want to impress them.

It’s okay if you’re confused. Anybody would be. But you’re making progress. At least, you’re on a page that promises to show you prom outfits for men. So, just keep reading, and even before you’re done, you’ll know what to wear to your prom night.

What’s Fun about Prom?

As you already know, a promenade is a ball or formal dance for high school students. It’s usually held at the end of the academic year for students who are in their final year.

It’s a night when you let loose, dress up in your best clothes, dance, have some fun, take photos, watch some of your mates get crowned prom king or queen, and do other fun activities. The best part is adults won’t boss you around. They expect you’d be on your best behavior and won’t try to breathe down your neck.

But you must be suited up for that. Even if you’ll spend the whole of your prom night dancing, you can’t afford to underdress for the occasion. And that’s why we’re discussing…

What do Guys Wear to Prom?

While girls wear dinner dresses or evening gowns to proms, a man’s go-to attire is a suit, tuxedo, or dinner jacket. If your budget isn’t enough for a new one, feel free to rent a suit or tux. But if you’re sure you’ll be wearing it more than once in a year, there’s no harm in making it all yours.

Let’s look at each of them in detail.

Dress Suits

Suits are classic prom outfits for men. Go for this if you wanna feel dressy but don’t want the formal touch of a tux. Unlike a tuxedo, you don’t have to wear your prom suit with a bow tie, vest, or cumme*rbund.

Simply wearing your suit with a necktie is enough. But if you insist on rocking a bow tie or vest, it’s fine. Suits are versatile pieces too.

Tuxedo Prom Outfits for Men

Tuxedos are more formal and dressier than a suit. Go for them if the dress code is black-tie or strictly formal. They’re best paired with a bow tie and a shirt with either a vest or cumme*rbund.

What’s the difference between a suit and a tux, you wonder? The difference lies in the appearance of both. For one, a tux is more dressed-up than a dress suit.

It has fancy trimmings like satin around the lapels, buttons, the sides of the trousers, and even the pockets. Also, the main material of a tux can have a slight sheen too. But a suit doesn’t.

Moreover, suits and tuxedos come in different colors. You can wear anyone you want whether in dark or bright shades, depending on if you wanna dress up or dress down.

Dinner Jacket

The dinner jacket is also known as the black-tie must-have for men. The difference between this jacket and a tuxedo or suit jacket is that it features shawl lapels that curve without peaks or notches. Furthermore, dinner jackets come in bold prints and patterns rather than black or midnight blue as typical of other formal jackets.

The best part about wearing a dinner jacket to your prom night is that you can choose to mix and match it with your pants or not. For instance, you can wear a burgundy dinner jacket with black pants or go for the same color if you want.

Wearing a dinner jacket is a fun way to look suave without looking informal.

What to Consider Before Choosing Your Prom Outfits for Men

1. Your School’s Dress Code

Before settling for any prom outfit for men, consider your school’s prom dress code. It may be black-tie (formal), semi-formal, or dressy casual. What you wear has to suit the dress code otherwise you’ll look out of place.

Say your school chose a black-tie occasion. You’ll have to wear a tuxedo with a bow tie to fit the event. And if it’s semi-formal, you may want to wear a suit or dinner jacket. But if it’s a dressy casual dress code, it’ll be more relaxed than the other two. So, sport coats, blazers, and other less formal jackets come in handy here.

2. Your Date

An easier way to decide what you’d wear to your prom is to ask your date and match with her. It works like this if she’ll be wearing a green dress, you wear a green jacket or a black suit with green pocket fillers.

Just match your look with hers. It’s not only flattering. It’ll also win the admiration of your colleagues.

3. The Theme

If there’s a theme, dress according to it. For instance, your school may ask you all to go retro semi-formal.

And if that happens, you’ll be suiting up the 1950s or 1970s way rather than contemporary.

4. Your Shoes

Your shoes will make or break your prom outfit. So, you have to be careful while choosing your footwear.

Save your palm slippers, sandals, trainers, etc., for other days. Instead, wear formal shoes for men like Oxfords, loafers, or other dress shoes. If your school permits or if you wanna be different from others, wear a pair of white sneakers. It’s a quick way to stand out.

5. The Color of Your Suit

So long as it’s in line with your school’s dress code, don’t be scared to wear any color of suit, tux, or dinner jacket.

If you wanna blend in, go for black and other dark colors. And if you wanna stand out, give bright colors a shot.

6. Your Accessories

Once you’ve decided on the color of suit, tux, or dinner jacket you’ll be wearing and the shoes you’ll pair with, the next to consider is your accessories.

These little add-ons punctuate your look. They add more accents and elevate your style. They include your wristwatch, pocket squares, cufflinks, stud earrings, necktie, bow tie, lapel pins, etc.

We have a detailed guide on men’s accessories. Go through it to see how to rock your prom accessories.

7. Your Hair

Did you think we’d leave this out? Of course not! Your hair is as important as your suit and everything else that’ll make up your outfit. So, don’t attend your prom looking unkempt. Have a nice shave.

There are many male hairstyles you can choose from. Just remember to visit your hairstylist and pick the best cut or style that’ll flaunt your cute face.

There you have it. Go ahead and use all you’ve learned here to pull off your prom outfits for men. But before you leave, don’t forget to smell nice. Girls are sometimes attracted to men’s fragrances, you know.

To help you achieve that, we have a guide on how to wear perfume correctly. If you’ll like to smell nice during your prom and would like your scent to last long, read the piece.

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