Formal wear or full dress is the Western dress code category applicable for the most formal occasions, such as weddings, christenings, confirmations, funerals, Easter and Christmas traditions, in addition to certain state dinners, audiences, balls, and horse racing events. Generally permitted other alternatives, though, are the most formal versions of ceremonial dresses, full dress uniforms, religious clothing, national costumes, and most rarely frock coats. In addition, formal wear is often instructed to be worn with official full size orders and medals.
The woman on the left displays a more romantic modern approach and Lourett Russell Grant on the right wears the most formal dress with evening gloves.
Diplomatic reception in West Germany (1961); the Danish ambassador wears a red diplomatic uniform, the British ambassador a dark one.
First native Catholic parish priest from the Belgian Congo, wearing a Roman cassock with the standard 18 buttons (Gazet van Antwerpen, 2 September 1906)
Catholic Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone wearing a tropical white cassock trimmed in cardinalatial scarlet in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (2006)
Western dress codes are a set of dress codes detailing what clothes are worn for what occasion. Conversely, since most cultures have intuitively applied some level equivalent to the more formal Western dress code traditions, these dress codes are simply a versatile framework, open to amalgamation of international and local customs. This versatility has made this scale of formality a practical international formality scale.
A historic chart of dress codes from Fashion, 1902