Designers and formalwear aficionados on the once-banished style’s surprising comeback

The pleated tuxedo shirt has had it rough. Perhaps tarnished by mere association with its flamboyant cousin—the ruffled tux shirts of ‘70s prom nightmares—the formal style has collected dust while men pulled for plainer shirts with piqué bib-fronts.

But as menswear continues to get a little looser, a little wilder and even a little weirder, the pleated tux shirt is back with a vengeance. Designer Todd Snyder, whose eponymous label offers a finely pleated version from Texas shirtmaker Hamilton, sees its comeback as part of an industry-wide trend towards formality.

“We’ve all been feeling this return to elegance… and the return of the pleated tuxedo shirt is part of that,” he tells Robb Report. But at the same time, Snyder also thinks that the style is more than capable of being dressed down.

“I’d suggest to start thinking of it as not just a formal shirt. It can look chic worn unbuttoned with dark denim and a sport coat or a tuxedo jacket for a holiday party or casual wedding,” Snyder continues.

Southern haberdasher Sid Mashburn sees his similarity discreet iteration as a way to inject a bit more personality into the penguin look. “I think guys want a little something extra, but it doesn’t have to holler at you,” he says, adding that smaller scale pleats will grab less attention, and sit more easily under the jacket.

Historically, finer pleats have also been favoured for socioeconomic reasons. As the La Bowtique Bowties founder and Modern Black Tie author Mickael Korausch details, small pleats indicated that the wearer could afford to pay for extra fabric, and the handwork that pleating required. “It was a sign of wealth to have very finely pleated shirts,” he says.

Korausch himself is more partial to slightly wider pleats, which he describes as being ¾” wide, as opposed to ¼” for smaller pleats. His rationale is that wider pleats are easier to press and “add a bit of gravity,” but he also believes that the pleats’ width should reflect the wearer’s stature.

“If someone is a bit taller and broader, you probably wouldn’t go with a really fine pleat, because that would look extremely busy,” he cautions.

Meanwhile, others are taking the style in new and unexpected directions. A particularly gonzo take comes from English shirtmaker Budd, which partnered with the photographer and Wm Brown magazine founder Matt Hranek to produce a pleated evening shirt in washed denim.

“We should not be reinventing black tie. Black tie is what it is. But I think where there is some leeway is in your shirting,” says Hranek, who sports the unusual shirt as part of an otherwise standard black-tie rig. However, he also wears the wing collar version of the same shirt sans-tie, in what he thinks of as a “warm, Palm Springs nights” look.

“Being in denim, I think it gives you a little more permission to be casual with it,” he continues.

Much further down the casual scale is the “oxford tuxedo shirt” engineered by Gitman Vintage this season, which combines all the traditional features of an OCBD—a button-down collar, a front placket and barrel cuffs—to a 10-pleat tuxedo-style front.

“Dress it up or dress it down, so the saying goes, with jeans or a tux,” says Gitman Bros. president Chris Olberding. “It works well with both, wrinkled or pressed.”

Today the pleated tuxedo shirt is even gaining a following with an entirely new demographic: women. Olivia Villanti, founder of the Mexico City-based Chava Studio, has added minutely pleated tuxedo shirts to her assortment of made-to-order womenswear.

“When I started Chava, I made the tux the nucleus of our design ethos,” she tells Robb Report. “It seemed like there were so many tux shirts out there, but none kept all the traditional elements intact: the pleated bib, the French cuffs, the wing collar. It felt like there were a million twists on it but none that would be the perfect shirt you’d swiped from your dad or grandfather, so that was where we started.”

And while Villanti maintains that her contribution to the pleated pantheon can be worn by women as part of a formal look, her clients often style it casually with jeans, high-waisted trousers or even denim shorts.

“It is also so feminine to see this previously masculine style worn in a casual way by a woman. It’s sexy.” she continues.

Yes, pleated tuxedo shirts are sexy. You heard it here first.

This story was first published on Robb Report USA