Your prom is on the horizon.

Fortunately, you have a date and you’ve been working on your dance moves. All that’s left is to make sure you look the part with the perfect tux. Let these ideas inspire you on your road to finding a tuxedo that makes you feel more Bond than Bonehead.

Cool Tuxedos for Prom: The Ultimate Guide to Finding the Perfect Look

It’s all about the look during your prom. Everybody’s dressed to impress, but you want to ensure you stand out in a sea of guys wearing mismatched, poorly coordinated, and ill-fitting suits. A tuxedo is the answer. And with these cool tuxedo options, you can choose from tons of styles so you find the perfect fit for your big evening.

Classic Cool Tuxedos for Prom

We all know the classic tuxedo look – deep black with a white shirt and bow tie. It’s the James Bond look, the traditional tuxedo that has that old-fashioned charm mixed with a little bit of youthful exuberance thrown in for good measure.

Traditional Black Tuxedos with a Modern Twist

Timeless.

That’s the word that best describes the traditional black tuxedo. It’s never fallen out of fashion because it’s impossible to look bad in this tux, making it a great choice for the tuxedo newbie who wants something simple and reliable.

But if you want to add a modern twist to the old classic, consider going for a slim-fit option. You can tell these tuxedos from older black tuxes because the jackets tend to be a touch shorter and the lapels are thinner.

Stylish Cool Tuxedos for Prom

Black is great, but it can feel a little passé for people who love bold colors and non-traditional patterns. You want to stand out. You want your tux to be an expression of your individuality rather than something that’ll have you slot nicely into the crowd, which means going on the search for a tux that makes a bold statement.

Unique Colors and Patterns for Standout Style

You make your bold statement if you choose a tux that uses non-traditional colors or eschews the standard solid color design in favor of bold patterns. Here are a couple of examples.

Go Grey with Generation Tux

Why limit yourself to stuffy black when a grey tux gives a lighter look and feel? This design from Generation Tux features black accents on the lapels and pocket but is mostly a light grey that’s as versatile as it’s elegant.

Best of all, you can rent the tuxedo rather than buy it, and it’ll arrive at your home at least 14 days before your prom.

Inspire with Ivory

Turn the traditional tuxedo on its head with an ivory tuxedo that’s white all over. Ivory is an off-white color that offers just enough contrast against the pure white of your shirt, but it’s so far removed from the traditional black that it’s almost impossible not to stand out. It’s a great choice for guys who want to make a real impression in their prom photos.

Phenomenal Floral Patterns

Patterns aren’t usually the domain of tuxedos, but you can break that mode by bringing some floral elegance to your prom. A paisley pattern can include the black you’d expect to see from a tux with grey or white backing, creating a tux that makes the pattern the star of the show.

Affordable Cool Tuxedos for Prom

Affordability can be a problem for high-school students, especially if they’re buying or renting a tux with their own money. These choices are friendly to your bank balance and still look the part.

Budget-Friendly Options Under $100

You have $100 to spend and you need a tuxedo jacket and trousers.

CCO Menswear’s Royal Diamond Two-Piece Tux

Though it’s usually available for $135, the Royal Diamond can be yours for less than $90 if you happen to catch it on sale. There’s nothing spectacular going on here – it’s a single-breasted black tux with a notch lapel – but it’s ideal for the prom-goer on a budget.

Formal Wear Outlet’s $99 Tuxedo Package

A jacket, shirt, trousers, vest, cufflinks, tie, and vest come as part of this $99 package, which you can customize with a host of options. The catch is that you’re buying a previously-rented tuxedo. But it’s clean, and you can get a bunch of accessories you can use to customize your style.

Designer Cool Tuxedos for Prom

Money isn’t an object when you’re shopping at the designer end of the tuxedo spectrum – you just want something that looks good.

High-End Tuxedos for a Luxe Look

The luxe look comes from a combination of the brand you choose and the materials that brand uses. If you’re ready to splurge, these are two great high-end options.

Ralph Lauren Polo Wool

For around $1,400, you get an elegant classic-style black tuxedo from Ralph Lauren, with its famous Polo branding. Note – you only get the jacket and pants with this tux. But you can accessorize with shoes, a shirt, and a pocket square from Ralph Lauren to create the perfect look.

Gucci Tapered Wool Mohair Tuxedo

Become part of the Gucci gang with a luxury tuxedo that’ll easily set you back $4,000 once you’ve found accessories to match. The jacket is a blend of 83% wool, with the rest being mohair, and you get the classic black tuxedo design with a contemporary slim fit.

Modern Cool Tuxedos for Prom

Your style is your own. That fact may cause you to shy away from the tuxedos that offer the classic dinner party look in favor of something fresh and contemporary.

Sleek and Contemporary Styles for a Fresh Look

Achieving a fresh look is less about finding a tuxedo from a specific brand and more about looking for something that sets the tux apart from the standard. Here are a couple of ideas.

Go for a Slim Fit Cut

Wearing a slim-fit tuxedo can be a risk because the style doesn’t fit every body type. Assuming you have the right build, your tux will stand out due to having thinner lapels and a shorter jacket, making it almost a hybrid between a traditional tux and a suit. You may need a tailor to get the fit just right, but going slimline ensures you look anything but stuffy.

Look for Unique Fabrics

The classic tuxedo fabric is wool, which carries the lovely sheen you expect to see from a tux. You may find that budget tuxedos use polyester or rayon, which undergo special treatment to get the sheen and cost less than wool.

If none of those materials sound like your style, look for tuxes made using silk, corduroy, or even velvet. You’ll pay a little more, but you’ll get a luxurious tux that’s instantly distinguishable from those using wool or wool-like materials.

Prom Tuxedo Ideas

It’s not just the tuxedo itself that makes your prom look special. Your accessories play a role and can offer a great way to distinguish an otherwise traditional tux from the rest of the pack.

Inspiration for Accessorizing Your Tuxedo Look

The classic cummerbund seems like the obvious accessory for a tux, but they’re not always great for proms because they restrict your movement. Instead, try these three accessories that allow you to be a demon on the dancefloor while moving away from the formal look the most famous tuxedo accessory offers.

Suspenders

Once you whip your jacket off, a white shirt can look a little barren and lifeless. Classic black suspenders fix that problem, though you can also opt for patterned suspenders with bold colors if you’re looking to deliver something unexpected when you shed the jacket.

Pocket Squares

Sometimes, traditional accessories can complement even a modern-style tuxedo. For the formal dress look, a simple white square does the trick. You could go for a pattern, but you need to ensure it doesn’t clash with the rest of the tux. As a general rule, make sure your pocket square doesn’t match your bow tie.

Cufflinks

You get a chance to personalize your tix with your cufflinks, as they can offer little hints of who you are even if you go for the traditional black tuxedo. Letters are always popular (try using your cufflinks to spell your initials), but a lot of people opt for geometric shapes, such as circles and rectangles.

Cool Prom Tuxedos That Will Match with Black Dresses

Your date has a beautiful black dress and you want a tuxedo to match. But that doesn’t always mean you need a black tux, as there are a few other ideas for coordinating your tuxedo with a sleek black dress.

Tuxedo Ideas for Coordinating with Your Date’s Look

Black with black is the easy choice for coordinating with your date’s look, but here are a couple of other ideas.

Wear a Black Shirt with a Lighter Tux

This idea is about creating contrast while still having something that ties your outfit to your date’s black dress. The black shirt solves the complementing problem, with a deep color for the tux (try maroon red) creating contrast while ensuring you’re not too far away from your date’s color choice.

Choose a Midnight Blue Tuxedo

Midnight blue comes about as close to black as you can get without actually wearing black, making it a great choice to complement a black dress. You also avoid the possibility of a formality clash, which might be a problem if you veer too far away from dark colors.

Trendy Cool Tuxedos for Prom

What’s on-trend right now can have a huge influence on your tuxedo choice, especially if the trend doesn’t match the traditional look.

On-Trend Styles for Fashion-Forward Looks

Here are a couple of ideas for a fashion-forward look that meshes what a tuxedo has always been with some new ideas:

• Try wearing bolder colors, such as deep blue or off-white, if you want to contrast your date’s outfit.
• Metallics are in, and they give your tux the same type of sheen as you get from the classic wool look.
• Add some richness and character to your tuxedo by opting for velvet ahead of wool, which is especially effective thanks to the two-tone design often used for velvet tuxes.

Custom Cool Tuxedos for Prom

Going down the customized route means you match your tuxedo to your personality and ensure you get a great fit.

Made-to-Measure Tuxedos for a Perfect Fit

Yes, you’ll have to make more effort if you choose a made-to-measure tuxedo. That may involve a visit to a tailor to tweak your tux once it arrives, as well as measuring your shoulders, waist, and chest before your order.

But the benefits are clear – your tuxedo looks unique because it’s clearly designed to fit your body type. That perfect fit stands out, especially when compared to tuxedos that are a little baggy or long.

Unique Prom Tuxedos

You’re born to stand out, and your tuxedo can be an expression of that fact. Going down the more unique route means you get a tux that’s anything but traditional.

One-of-a-Kind Tuxedos for a Standout Look

Try these tuxedos if you want to add a unique flavor to your prom look:

• Neiman Marcus’s embroidered tuxedo brings a touch of stardust to your look with its embroidered accents.
• Touch up the tuxedo’s inner lining with a funny or flash design from Joel & Son Fabrics.
• Hockerty’s velvet tuxedos are thicker and more luxurious than a standard woolen tuxedo.

Fashionable Prom Tuxedos

As a dedicated follower of fashion, you’d rather buck a few trends than go with the traditional tuxedo look.

Stylish Tuxedos for a Sophisticated Look

Anything that strays away from the norm offers a unique style, but you still want to look sophisticated for your prom date. Generation Tux’s charcoal grey notch lapel tux is a great choice. You get to express yourself with a different color and bold black accent on the lapel while keeping the classic notch style that screams sophistication.

High-Quality Cool Tuxedos for Prom

Quality matters, both for ensuring the tuxedo doesn’t fall apart during your prom and so you can use the tux at future events.

Top-Quality Tuxedos for a Long-Lasting Look

The great thing about tuxedos is that the traditional look never goes out of fashion, so follow these tips to ensure you get durability to go along with the look:

• Always check the stitching, especially near the seams, as even a couple of loose threads can be a precursor for future problems.
• Avoid synthetics whenever you can because they don’t wash well and typically don’t last as long as natural wools or silks.
• Give the lining a pinch to confirm it floats away from your jacket and to check what’s underneath the lining.

Where to Find Cool Tuxedos for Prom

You know what to look for in a tux and have some ideas ready for making your prom look your own. There’s one task left – finding your tuxedo.

Top Stores and Online Tuxedo Rental Websites for Tuxedo Shopping

The following are some of the best stores and online rental sites for finding the perfect prom tux:

• Generation Tux – Rent a quality tuxedo with plenty of protection against issues. You receive the tuxedo 14 days before the big day and the company handles any fit issues as long as you contact them within 48 hours of receiving your tuxedo.
• The Black Tux – This company uses a special “Fit Algorithm” that draws from millions of data points to help you get the perfect fit for your tuxedo.
• Bonobos Suits – If you want to buy a reasonably-priced tuxedo, Bonobos has got you covered. The virtual appointment system, which helps with styling and getting the right fit, is also a winner.

Impress at Your Prom

Your prom tuxedo is your personality distilled into formal wear that you don’t get to show off too often. Finding the right one is about figuring out your style, matching your date’s look, and searching for that all-important cool factor. The ideas here will help. But remember – the perfect prom tuxedo is always the one that makes you feel the most comfortable with your look.