White Dinner Jackets

Young ladies light up Eve of Janus ball

Downtown Nashville was certainly the place to be on the evening of July 30. The American Idol Live! tour was at Bridgestone Arena, Mafiaoza’s Music City Brewer’s Festival was taking place at the Music City Walk of Fame Park, and at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, we had the 41st annual Eve of Janus .

Add those to the general Saturday-night happenings around the Lower Broadway area and you have — you guessed it — mass congestion of vehicles and people! Honestly, though, it was fun to see that much going on. Can we say “Hot Fun in the City”?

After making my way through the traffic, I arrived at the Schemerhorn for “ The Eve ,” as it is often called, a Nashville tradition and annual presentation ball of rising college sophomores. It is also the oldest fundraiser for the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt , held by the Nashville Alumnae Chapter of Delta Delta Delta . It’s an evening for the younger set and their families, gorgeous young ladies in white or pastel gowns, The Signs of the Times , being presented by handsome young men in white dinner jackets, The Marshals .

Upon arrival at the Schermerhorn, there was, of course, the requisite cocktail hour, which offered guests a chance to mingle and chat and offered parents a chance to share details about preparation for the evening. One of the interesting items I was privy to was a story about the gowns worn by three of the young ladies being presented. Eleanor Spruill, Elise Murphy and Lauren Piana asked former Ensworth classmate, Andrew Gallavin ­— now attending Pratt Institute’s School of Art and Design ­— to design their gowns for the evening. The young man is quite talented, and the gowns he designed for the young ladies were simply stunning.

Following the cocktail hour, guests headed off to their designated locations for dinner. Co-chairs Carroll Kimball and Wendy Martin , working with Denise Sikes of Big Events , created dinner venues in the main lobby, east lobby and the Curb room. Each space had its own ambience, as centerpieces and table coverings were created especially for each vignette. Dinner from chef Roger Keenan and the Schermerhorn kitchen staff began with a salad of mixed greens with roasted peppers, marinated beets and grape tomoatoes topped with herbed lahvosh and fig vinaigrette. For entrees, they served herb-crusted sliced medallions of aged beef tenderloin with a veal and Pinot noir demi glaze and pan-roasted salmon with a lemon dill veloute, tufted Boursin whipped potatoes and a bundle of lemon pepper haricots verts tied with roasted red pepper. Scrumptious!

Dear ESB: Is a white dinner jacket a terrible idea? | Wedding ...

*****

Not a terrible idea.

GQ’s Style Guy (who I consulted OFTEN when I was obsessively obsessing about H’s ensemble for our wedding), says, “White dinner jackets are meant for the summer season (beginning on Memorial Day) or for year-round temperate zones.” Austin may not be temperate year-round, but I’m willing to bet it’ll be hot in October.

And get this. He goes on to say, “The best white dinner jackets aren’t really white—they are a sort of cream color, since wool isn’t bright white. If the jacket is really white, it’s probably polyester, a fabric that doesn’t breathe well and thus isn’t the best warm-weather option.”

WOOT!

If you don’t find a “white” jacket you like, you could always go with another color. In light wool, obv, not polyester

I just styled a photo shoot where the editors final pick for the bride and groom was an ivory Vera Wang gown paired with a ‘white’ suit. I was dubious but once I saw it all together on site and now that I’ve seen how the pics turned out…it totally worked. It was actually pretty amazing. I would highly recommend going for it!