Dress Code Insults Etiquette?

The late, Harold Brooks-Baker, an American authority on British nobility who was a sought-after commentator on the doings -- serious, scandalous or merely ridiculous -- of the British royal family, was at one time managing director of Debrett’s. He published in 1978 a tongue-in-cheek, bestselling guide to The English Gentleman, who “does not drive a Rolls-Royce unless it is very old and smells of dogs”, and always “speaks to the engineer before a train trip because of an old belief that he owns the railroad.”

When Black Tie Became an Insult

(Reuter’s) LONDON — 

 

President Reagan’s protocol staff inadvertently insulted Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev by insisting that he wear a black tie (dinner jacket) at a summit banquet, according to Britain’s leading etiquette expert at the time.

Harold Brooks-Baker of Burke’s Peerage, a guide to the British aristocracy, told reporters it was an insult to mark “black tie” on invitations because international custom requires the guest of honor to be given the choice of dress.

Reagan was the Kremlin leader’s host at a White House banquet during the historic U.S.-Soviet summit meeting in Washington D.C., in December of 1987.

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia