A winter evening in London is a play in three acts: dinner, curtain, nightcap. The city's stages have obligingly raised their game this season, which means the bar for the audience has been raised with it. Nobody has ever enjoyed an opera in the wrong coat. Herewith, the shows worth booking and what to wear to them...
What To Book
Puccini's Tosca has returned to the London Coliseum in a new ENO production reimagined amid civil conflict, running until 11 December. At the Barbican, the RSC's Hamlet Hail to the Thief sets Shakespeare against Radiohead, until January. Sir Ian McKellen, eighty-seven, gives us a semi-autobiographical Lear at the newly reopened Yard Theatre in Hackney Wick. For Christmas, the National Theatre's big family show is a new adaptation of The Jungle Book, and Matthew Bourne's Cinderella arrives at Sadler's Wells in December, followed by English National Ballet's Nutcracker at the Coliseum.
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The Theatre
For the playhouse, a men's dinner jacket these days if often overkill, but don't be tempted to reach for a suit jacket or blazer better suited for daylight hours. Instead, our Nehru jackets are the perfect balance between dressed up and smart casual. Some, like the Nene version above are dressier than our plain velvet ones, but both cut a striking figure without veering into formalwear. For the ladies, a silk velvet coat such as our Eton or Westminster styles over a simple dress can't cut a very sophisticated look. For something dressier, particularly if there's an after hours dance floor within reach, opt for our black silk camisole dress worn beneath our semi-opaque Carnaby Coat Black Stotfold Silk Organza.
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The Opera And Ballet
The Coliseum and Covent Garden are the two rooms in London where you cannot be overdressed, only early. Gentlemen: green Nene velvet, its motif worked into the pile rather than printed upon it, or the navy Mayfair velvet dinner jacket with a shawl lapel if you would rather the velvet were blue. Ladies: this is the Long Swing Coat's true home - the walk from the restaurant to the stalls is, after all, a performance of its own. Underneath it, give the boys a run for their sartorial money in our navy velvet double-breasted shawl lapel dinner jacket, worn with matching lounge trousers.
Dinner To Nightcap
The evening's bookends matter as much as the middle. Pre-show, the classics: The Ivy, J Sheekey, Rules - all minutes from a curtain up, all merciful to velvet. Afterwards, the Connaught Bar, Dukes, or the American Bar at the Savoy, where the light is low, the martinis are famous, and nobody checks the time. Dress for that light. The performance may be the reason you went out; it is rarely the reason you stayed out.
