TUXEDO purchase or hire for a ball?

Kamran

Hey all, hope you're well and enjoying the weekend Sorry if I've reposted this in the wrong place!!

I am a student and I have a nice "halway through the degree" dinner/ball to go to in a week's time (saturday evening) and it's a black tie event, so I would like to wear a tuxedo for the evening.:hello:

Having done a preliminary search on the forums, I popped into my local George (ASDA's clothes shop), Primark, Debenhams, and Allders (all in the Croydon area) and wasn't able to find anything that was suitably priced. Primark and George had nothing, whilst the others were heavily priced. :mad:

The only suitable deal I found was at Marks and Spencer, where I could get a tux jacket, trousers, shirt and bow tie for £75ish.

Is that a good deal based on my student budget? Does anyone have any experiences they could share? What about online? :question:

And since I'd be getting a pretty basic, non-fancy tux package for £75, might it be a better solution to hire one? (online or otherwise) - any shops or online recommendations?

Thanks a lot! :T

Kam

whatatwit

Have you tried matalan, my OH got his last dinner suit from there.

Without being rude....are you beanpole thin and likely to expand, or an ordinary size.
Just wondering how long it would last you, this has to be considered and are you likely to wear it again, Christmas balls and the like.

rosekitten

the suits from M&S even the cheap oneslast quite well and keep their shape.It wouldprobably be quite cost effective for you to go with the M&S option as there will be otherballs,dinner dances etc that you can use it for.It can be quite pricey to hire and you dont always get the best stuff.£75sounds cheap to me,plus you can see and try on what your buying in M&Sbefore you buy.

feclmum

next directory had them quite cheap aswell bil bought one few weeks ago,cant remember exact price sorry! although my son needed a dj for dressing up book day at school and got a really gud 1 from charity shop for £2.99

tpsjrm

£75 is probably the best deal you will get for a brand new full outfit - likely to be cheaper than Moss Bross hire, and they will give you a crappy suit because you are a student and likely to vomit all over it !!! :beer:

But have you tried looking in your local charity shops? The thing with these suits is that chaps tend to expand out of them before they wear them out, so you could end up getting a real bargain at the Oxfam shop. If nothing else, you'll certainly get a cheap dress shirt, which will save you a few quid.

Have a great time.

robpw2

I got a tuxedo jacket for £10 from primark and the trousers were also £10 (but hadnt got my size) love the jacket though

SugarSpun

H&M had a tuxedo style jacket in the sale a while ago. But I'd try vintage or charity shops.

Rikki

Hiring is going to cost you more than £75 and once you've bought it you can wear it again without paying out a penny.

shelly

I agree with the others who say you have to think about whether you are going to wear it again. If you are likely to want a tux only every few years then I'd say hire one but if you will want it at least once a year then its a better investment to buy one.

Hubby used to hire a tux as needed but 1 particular year he needed one 3 times for work do's so in the end he bought one.

Oh and without being rude if you aren't a guy who's waist measurement stays pretty much the same all the time i'd recommend buying 2 pairs of trousers (if your budget allows of course) Last time hubby needed his he practically starved himself for 4 days to get into his only pair of trousers. It worked but its not ideal.

Gingernutmeg

Sometimes wedding and suit hire shops sell of ex-hire suits really cheaply. It's worth calling a few local ones and seeing if they've got anything suitable. Or, charity shops in posh areas can be good for dinner suits, or if you go to fairly posh university towns there are often shops that specifically sell second hand tuxedos etc.

Kamran

thanks! but what are the chances that a charity shop has one perfectly in my size? I'm 5"10 72kg so I'm quite average, but still, isn't that a long shot? and I don't know any nice charity shops in my area to be honest!

Perhaps the best bet would be to go with the MandS £75 deal?