Our top tips for styling your smartest suit in warmer weather .

In comparison to, say, Hawaiian shirts, or espadrilles, the tuxedo doesn’t tend to feature very often on people’s lists of “summer essentials”. Yet the summer months tend to be when this most-dressy grandee of tailoring comes in particularly handy, thanks to the various weddings, galas, garden parties and the like that tend to be thrown at this time. What’s more, as MR PORTER discovered on our recent trip to Venice to capture the latest collection from exclusive brand Kingsman – a tan and a tux go together rather nicely, to the extent that the combo can even work in a non-party context (NB: the image above). Yes, there is certainly more than one way to wear a tuxedo in the coming months – scroll down to discover three of them.

It’s easy with a tux to immediately switch into autopilot when it comes to building the complete look: cummerbund, shiny black shoes, bow tie, you know the drill. This, of course, is utterly appropriate if you’re going to a black tie event, but if you want to whip out your tux for a more casual occasion (or just experiment a bit), there’s no need to abide by such strictures. In fact, given that the 1970s is very much the decade of the moment, style-wise (thanks largely to Mr Alessandro Michele at Gucci), there’s no reason you can’t wear a dinner jacket (this one in midnight blue will look sophisticated on a summer night) with a rakishly-unbuttoned white shirt. Just remember what we said in paragraph one about the tan, though – only vampires are intrigued by the sight of a milky-white neckline.

When should you wear a white dinner jacket? Well, it’s a free country after all, so, really, whenever you feel like it. But allow us to gently suggest that summer is a particularly appropriate season for this kind of style, thanks to the abundance of light, the preponderance of outdoor events and, again, the likelihood that your skin will have a slightly more golden hue. Wear it with a pair of black tuxedo trousers – as an ivory jacket is quite an eye-catching piece, you need to keep everything else sharp and simple.

The tuxedo is a lavish thing, and so works rather well with other lavish things – a good excuse to add such items as the above to your wardrobe. On a practical note, a pair of velvet slippers (worn sockless) is a far more comfortable option for eveningwear in the summer than the traditional choice of patent leather Oxfords. On a less practical and more, “oh, why not” note, wearing a patterned silk scarf with your tuxedo allows you to add a little bit of extra flair to the occasion without having to invest in a glittery bow tie or other such frippery. This example from Dolce & Gabbana in particular strikes a nice balance between ornate and simple, with its monochrome palette.