It’s a dressy world. And it just got dressier. You used to be able to rent or buy a tuxedo and rest easy in the knowledge that you were prepared for any formal business or social event. Not any more. A tux that hasn’t been fashionably tweaked is like a suit from the 1970s: a back-lot costume redolent of mothballs and better times. For example, at this week’s Venice Film Festival opener, Burn After Reading, its star George Clooney wisely chucked the dour black-on-black Armani tuxedo that he claimed in 2006 to have worn for 10 years in favour of a classic narrow-lapel single-breasted model paired with a crisp white shirt and proper bow tie. Co-star Brad Pitt opted for a double-breasted peak-lapel tux with a natty white pocket square. The Coen brothers, who directed the spy comedy, posed on the red carpet in formal black attire sans ties for a more artsy look.

It continued what had begun earlier this summer at the Cannes Film Festival, where American Vogue editor-at-large André Leon Talley appeared in a double-breasted tux with a straight tie and glittery buckles on his patent-leather shoes, Sean “P Diddy” Combs sported black pants with a white dinner jacket and a black pocket handkerchief, and fashion designers Stefano Dolce and Domenico Gabbana drew inspiration from the 1960s with rail-thin ties and slim lapels to create the “skinny tux”.