Dressing for a Viennese Ball: A Lesson from the Window of Knize

If you walk along the Graben in Vienna and pause at number 13, you will find one of the great men's outfitters in Europe. Knize has been in business since 1858, when a Bohemian tailor named Josef Kniže set up in the city specialising in riding clothes and liveries. By 1888 the house had been appointed purveyor to the Habsburg court. The shop interior, designed by architect Adolf Loos between 1910 and 1913, has remained almost unchanged since. Many a famous client has stepped through these doors before you.

On Ballavimus' last visit, we learned two important lessons about men's tailoring. These are worth your attention, particularly if you are visiting Vienna for a ball and thinking about what to wear.

The first is the white marcella waistcoat worn with a black shawl lapel dinner jacket. In Britain and America this combination is unusual enough to raise eyebrows. However, the helpful team at Knize, told us that in Austria, this combination is entirely conventional. Black tie, it turns out, is not the fixed international code it's sometimes presented as. We quite like it, even if we do wonder how often you'd actually see the full effect when you keep your jacket button done up over it. 

The second observation is more cautionary. The white tie ensemble we saw had plastic buttons rather than grosgrain covered ones. This is a small detail, and not one most people would notice or care about. But it is a reminder that even in the window of a house with 160 years of tradition behind it, ready to wear is still ready to wear. If you are spending serious money on formal dress, it is worth knowing what to look for. Alternatively, if you have time it would not take their (or any other tailor) very long to swap them out for the more correct alternatives. 

P.S. we love the opera capes - so elegant and so much less common in Britain. 

Knize is at Graben 13, Vienna. Worth visiting for the Loos interior alone, even if you leave empty handed.