White Tie: Women
– Full-length, formal evening dresses. It is traditional, but not essential, to show décolletage. Shorter dresses or trousers, no matter how smart, are not acceptable.
– Jewellery can be striking; this is the time for the finest jewels and gems, including tiaras. Traditionally these are worn for the first time by brides, and subsequently by married women only. It is incorrect for young girls to wear tiaras on any occasion.
– Evening bags should be small and elegant.
Gloves
Long evening gloves are traditionally worn at balls and dinners when the dress code is ‘white tie’ but are no longer compulsory at many events. They work best with sleeveless dresses but older women may wear them with cap or short sleeves. With long sleeves it is better to dispense with gloves, rather than wear short ones. Gloves should be worn en route to an event, in a receiving line, when shaking hands and dancing. They are removed when eating (even a canapé) and at the dinner table – they should be taken off finger by finger and rested on the lap under the napkin.
There we go. Good old debretts will tell you the lot.it has full descriptions of every detail of black and white tie events as well as clothing and all things etiquette. All about the way an event is conducted etc.
Presumably they gave HIM a copy.