Dining In Night

Adult Staff The Staff Mess
1

At dining in nights, what do cadets normally wear, and what do staff without mess dress wear?

Google has come up with a variety of options including Wedgewoods, Uniform trousers/skirts and white shirts with bow ties or dresses for the ladies.

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MALE STAFF

In order of preference (if the person owns such uniform)

CIs

  • Dinner Suit
  • Lounge Suit

SNCOs

  • Number 5s
  • Number 4s (Interim Mess Dress - Basically No.1s with white shirt and bow tie)
  • Dinner Suit
  • Lounge Suit

Officers

  • Number 5s
  • Number 4s
  • Dinner Suit
  • Lounge Suit

FEMALE STAFF
AS above really (without the suit bits) but normally you’ll see them wearing a dress which is below the knee and covers the shoulders.

CADETS

Who knows?

Personally for a Sqn dinner I’d go with wedgewoods for the lads (and any girls that want to wear uniform) and dresses for the ladies!

However CWOs attending our Wing Guest Night have been asked to wear Dinner Suits or Lounge Suits over uniform.

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A sort of ‘cadet no 4’ seems popular and is what I’ve often seen:

The logic basically starts with the difference between No 1 and No 4, then apply the changes to No 2 as that’s basically the cadets’ equivalent to No 1.

What you end up with is No 2 trousers, belt and shoes, with a long-sleeved white shirt and black bow tie.

Works fine for summer events, I’m not quite so sure that it looks good if you need to wear a jumper!

4

i would second MattB’s comments, i have seen Cadets in a “Cadet No4” but without jumpers, it would be impractical for a winter event.
the past few dinners i have attended has had Cadets in Wedgewoods as a formal dinner while another Sqn had a more social dinner (disco followed) had all in dinner jackets (Staff and Cadets) except the top table who wore No5s/4s

on both occasions i would have agreed with the mode of dress, so woudl depend how formal the dinner is imo

5

I’ve never understood the desire to make these things overly formal: is there anything wrong with just asking cadets to dress “smartly” and come along to a sit-down meal with a couple of speeches but no BS?

Who/what is the dinner actually aimed at?

6

I agree. When I was OC a Sqn, we discovered, perhaps oddly, that quite a lot of the cadets wouldn’t want to wear their uniform to something like a dinner night, but they did want to make an effort and ‘scrub up’ for the evening. We made the dress code No5s for those adult staff who had them, No4s for other uniformed staff, black tie (dinner jacket) for gentlemen (including male cadets) if they had one, evening dresses for ladies (including female cadets) again if they had one. If people didn’t have black tie or evening dresses as applicable, it would then be lounge suits, school uniform or last of all the smartest they could muster!

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[quote=“Leeroy” post=5040]

However CWOs attending our Wing Guest Night have been asked to wear Dinner Suits or Lounge Suits over uniform.[/quote]

Wouldn’t they get a bit warm wearing that? :lol:

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The good book suggests:

[quote=AP1358C, Chapter 6, Para 16]Salon Dress
16. Where the occasion warrants a more formal dress (for instance at a formal dinner) the following may be worn by cadets (without headdress, badges or insignia) within the confines of the venue:
a. Plain white shirt with normal (not winged) collar
b. Black bow tie
c. Blue grey trousers/slacks (not skirts)
d. Black shoes
e. Slate grey cummerbund is optional
Notes:
Although authorised for wear, with the exception of blue grey trousers/slacks these items are not scaled for issue at public expense.
Rank badges are not to be worn with Salon Dress
17. Alternatively, at the discretion the OIC, female cadets may wear a full length evening dress in a style and colour in keeping with the male attire.[/quote]

My Squadron’s dinners have been in this attire for years. The chief benefit of it, is that it’s not an expensive outlay for a cadet who doesn’t own a suit or dress. (Although I have never seen a female cadet wear it.)

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I hadn’t spotted that it was now an official option - cheers for that!

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[quote=“MattB” post=5052]I hadn’t spotted that it was now an official option - cheers for that![/quote]It is; for bands.

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Tried it many years ago and very few cadets ended up going saying they didn’t want to wear uniform! Ultimately, these are not compulsory ‘parades’ and the cadets have to pay to attend, so our decision was to go with what they wanted as long as it was smart and in keeping with the tone of the event. We had several serving Air Officers as Guests of Honour and none of them commented adversely on the cadets’ attire, quite the opposite!

And before anyone says, yes I know normal parade evenings and Annual Camps aren’t compulsory either and cadets are happy to wear uniforms then!

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[quote=“incubus” post=5053][quote=“MattB” post=5052]I hadn’t spotted that it was now an official option - cheers for that![/quote]It is; for bands.[/quote]I also hadn’t spotted that!

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Dining Out night for a member of staff, been involved in the Corps for over 60 years. Attandence will be from senior/over 18 cadets and adult staff from the squadron and within the Wing/Region.

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I did suggest up the chain that ‘band Salon Dress’ might be a good option to include for all cadets as a No 4-esque option for just such an occasion.

Never did hear back.

15

We’re holding our annual Dining In/Out Night at the end of the month.

We’ve usually done the suits/smart dress approach but it was suggested to the cadets about the “No4” dress for them and they seemed genuinely happy about it. Provided that we source the bow ties…

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We have a dining in night for our christmas dinner. The cadets and cdt cpls wear Wedgwoods and the SNCO’s and CWO’s wear no.1’s if we can get our hands on enough. (I know cadets aren’t supposed to wear no.1s and blah blah blah but it looks smart.) We follow a lot of the traditions; we have the youngest cadet as the vice who toasts the queen. There is a seating plan with name cards which are written on and sent up to the top table to be read out by the CWO. slightly less formal, bibs are provided for the no handed pudding eating competition. But its fun and it gives the cadets a taste of the formal side of the RAF.

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“No handed pudding eating contest”. I think you mean Korean rules (no cutlery).

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Have seen both male and female CWOs in a “Cadet No4”, with their No1s, white shirt and dickie-bow. Looked smart … smarter than some of the uniformed adults, probably cos their No1s hadn’t shrunk (yet!).