Dressing for Dinner

[thebabessavedme]

I have spent this afternoon watching Saltburn. Are there really still people who 'dress' for dinner every night? I have been to more than my fair share of 'black tie' dinners, always nice occasions in interesting places, generally business related. Its quite nice to dress up a few times a year but every night? What a total ball ache that would be. I can't believe that many people dress for dinner these days, unless you know different?

If you mean dressing in black tie, that’s only for special occasions, like a dinner with a guest speaker (we had Jeremy Irons once, and he roared up on a bike in full leathers, drank like a fish and was good craic). ‘Formal hall’ on an ordinary night just means throwing a gown over your normal clothes.

Didn't people usually do this while entertaining (including having house guests)? If I was having people round for dinner I wouldn't be in a cocktail dress but I wouldn't be in the clothes I'd worn around the house all day either, so I can see how you would go quite smart if that's how you dressed normally and also if you had to do absolutely none of the work of preparing the meal...

We eat after the kids are in bed on a Friday and normally do have a pre-dinner drink but no one is dressing up for it!

I was thinking about this while re-watching Downton Abbey. How lovely it would be to dress up properly and eat at the table with candlelight etc.

I was going to make it a bit of a NY resolution to give it a go.

Truth is though I don't have a cook, lady's maid or butler and dinner is usually whatever has come out of the slow cooker after we have finished work and school. But I still want to try and make the evening meal more special.

@Newchapterbeckons you aren't Crumbs then! 😉a mumsnet classic