The whole thing about a black tie event is that the rules of its attendant dress code are supposed to make it really, really easy to get ready for—for the men, anyway. And yet, despite what feels like millennia of great examples, some guys can’t seem to nail the look.
At the 2020 Academy Awards on Sunday night, a lot of the attendees (Tom Hanks, Chris Rock and Oscar Isaac among them) executed standard-issue tuxedos admirably and looked all the better for it. A few guys who didn’t don traditional tuxedos still managed to look great (we’re talking about you Timothee Chalamet) because they brought something wholly original to the mix. And then there were the men who showed up in all black and worse, tuxedos that didn’t come close to fitting.
A closer look at what made the good looks work—and an examination of some of those that didn’t—below.
