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10 Iconic Movie Tuxedos
Few garments in cinema carry as much weight as the tuxedo (or ‘dinner suit’ in English). On screen it has symbolised power, elegance, rebellion and transformation. From Dietrich’s trailblazing look in Morocco to Bond’s razor-sharp tailoring in Spectre, these moments prove how the dinner suit is never just costume… it’s character.
In this blog we look at the style details and cultural significance of 10 iconic dinner suits from the world of film. And while these tuxedos made movie history, your own can be just as memorable. At King & Allen, we’ll help you design a dinner suit that’s truly yours - ready for the winter season, festive parties, or any occasion where you want to feel iconic.
1. Marlene Dietrich in Morocco - 1930
Details
Black tuxedo with strong lapels, white tie, top hat. Sharp tailoring - clean lines, formal “white tie” accessories.
Cultural Significance
Dietrich’s tuxedo is one of the earliest mainstream challenges to gender norms in fashion. By adopting masculine formalwear onscreen, she blurred the lines between elegance, queerness, and subversion. This look is still referenced by designers and is foundational in the story of women wearing dinner jackets as acts of rebellion and glamour.
2. Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca - 1942
Details
Ivory dinner jacket, a wide shawl lapel and structured cut. Black trousers, white shirt, bow tie.
Cultural Significance
Bogart’s white tux in Casablanca is one of the most enduring black-tie images in cinema. It turned the dinner jacket into a symbol of romance, mystery, and sophistication. This scene solidified the ivory DJ as not just tropical attire but an international emblem of suave glamour. Every modern reference to a white tux owes something to Bogart in Rick’s Café.
3. Katharine Hepburn in Woman of the Year - 1942
Details
Velvet smoking jacket styled like a dinner jacket. Sleek lapels, long lines, minimalist tailoring
Cultural Significance
Hepburn embodied independence, intellect, and strength. Wearing a dinner jacket onscreen wasn’t just a fashion choice, it was a declaration of equality at a time when women were expected to stick to gowns. Hepburn’s tailoring helped reframe women in trousers and tuxedos as stylish, modern, and powerful rather than scandalous.
4. Frank Sinatra in Pal Joey - 1957
Details
Light gray single-breasted dinner jacket, likely in mohair or a wool blend, giving it texture and sheen on film. White dress shirt and classic black bow tie complete the formal look. Paired with darker trousers - contrast that grounds the lighter jacket in formalwear tradition.
Cultural Significance
Sinatra’s gray DJ in Pal Joey offers nuance to the tux narrative: it shows that formalwear doesn’t need to live only in black or white. Here the gray version conveys sophistication with personality. For Sinatra, it reinforced his image as a suave entertainer who could wear formalwear as performance, not just protocol. Over time, this jacket has been referenced by menswear historians and stylists as a template for “non-black tuxedos”; the kind of formalwear that stands out without being flamboyant.
5. Vito Corleone in The Godfather - 1972
Details
Classic black dinner jacket with satin peak lapels. Crisp shirt, black bow tie, red carnation boutonniere.
Cultural Significance
Vito Corleone’s tux is not about elegance, it’s about power. The red carnation symbolises authority and menace as much as romance. The Godfather’s dinner jacket became the uniform of cinematic crime bosses, cementing the tuxedo as a visual code for patriarchal dominance, family legacy, and ruthless control.
6. Julie Andrews in Victor Victoria (1982)
Details
Black tuxedo with satin lapels and pleated shirt. Styled for stage performance with theatrical tailoring.
Cultural Significance
In Victor Victoria, the dinner jacket is weaponised as disguise and transformation. Andrews’ character blurs the lines between genders, using the tux as a costume of reinvention. This look pushed the tuxedo into queer and drag culture, showing its potential as a garment of identity play. It remains a touchstone for inclusivity and theatricality in formalwear.
7. Leonardo Dicaprio in Titanic - 1997
Details
Black tailcoat cut to flare behind (tails). White waistcoat and crisp formal shirt with wing collar. White bow tie. The overall silhouette is stately, with a narrow waist, broad shoulders, and the flare of the tails giving drama.
Cultural Significance
When Jack (Leo) dresses in tailcoat/formal evening wear, it visually bridges his “outsider” identity with the high society world he’s temporarily entering. Because Titanic is so beloved, the imagery of Jack in formalwear has become part of the movie’s romantic iconography. It’s one of those moments people remember when they think of tuxes in film: elegance, tragedy, transformation.
8. Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby - 2013
Details
Classic black dinner jacket with satin peak lapels. Crisp white dress shirt, black bow tie, and a neatly folded pocket square. Worn with matching black formal trousers, cut slim to echo 1920s proportions but tailored with modern sharpness. The overall silhouette is clean, glamorous, and just slightly theatrical — perfect for Gatsby’s world of spectacle.
Cultural Significance
This look distills Gatsby’s entire character into one image: charm and the illusion of control. The raised glass in black tie has become an instantly recognisable meme and visual shorthand for opulence. More broadly, the film reignited interest in Jazz Age style, inspiring a wave of Gatsby-themed weddings and parties. The dinner jacket here doesn’t just dress a man, it embodies the allure and tragedy of a character who believes elegance can mask emptiness.
9. Blake Lively in A Simple Favor - 2018
Details
Black dinner jacket with structured shoulders and a sharp, single-breasted cut. Crisp white formal shirt with a wing collar. White bow tie and pocket square. High-waisted trousers, cinched with braces, completing the full black-tie ensemble.
Cultural Significance
This look turns the tuxedo into pure character work. Lively’s Emily wears it not as novelty but as a declaration of power, style, and mystery. It flips the femme fatale trope: instead of a slinky gown, she commands attention in a tailored tuxedo. It’s become a memorable example of women using black tie to project dominance on screen.
10. James Bond - through the ages!
Details
Ivory dinner jacket, single-breasted with a one-button closure. Wide notch lapels, structured shoulders, and jetted pockets. Paired with black formal trousers, crisp pleated white shirt, and a black bow tie. In some films, a red carnation boutonniere has been added to give a flash of colour.
Cultural Significance
Across six decades, James Bond has defined the dinner jacket in popular culture. Each era of the character brought a new interpretation; from the early 1960s midnight-blue shawl collar to the sleek, athletic cuts of Daniel Craig’s tenure. More than just costume, the tuxedo is Bond’s armour… a symbol of danger, elegance, and timeless glamour that continues to shape how we imagine black tie today.
Honourable Mention...
Billy Porter’s Tuxedo Gown - 2019
Whilst technically not from a movie itself, Billy Porter’s tuxedo gown worn to the 2019 Oscars is a must have for our list for the design itself, and the underlying inclusivity message.
Details
Custom creation by Christian Siriano. Black velvet tuxedo jacket with classic satin lapels and structured shoulders. White formal shirt and oversized bow tie, echoing traditional black-tie styling. Instead of trousers, the look flows into a full ballgown skirt in matching black velvet — a dramatic fusion of tuxedo and evening gown.
Cultural Significance
Billy Porter’s tuxedo gown redefined what black tie could mean in the 21st century. By merging masculine and feminine codes of dress, it challenged traditional boundaries of gender expression on one of the world’s biggest red-carpet stages. The look became an instant cultural milestone, celebrated as both a fashion statement and an act of visibility for queer and non-binary identities. It proved that the tuxedo isn’t confined to rigid tradition, but can be a canvas for individuality, inclusivity, and fearless self-expression.
From the 1930s onwards, the tuxedo has stood for many things: glamour, authority, seduction and defiance. On screen it has been used to challenge gender norms, symbolise power, express romance, and embody transformation.
These ten moments remind us that black tie is never just black and white. It is endlessly adaptable, and with King & Allen, it can be tailored to you. Whether you’re preparing for a winter ball, festive celebration, or black-tie event, we’ll help you craft a dinner suit that’s as individual and iconic as the ones you’ve just seen.
IMAGES IN HEADER:
Paramount Pictures, Josef von Sternberg, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Warner Bros., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
