What to Wear to Lodge

The safe answer, for any Lodge you have not been to before, in any jurisdiction, on any occasion: a dark suit, a white shirt, and a conservative tie.

You will never be the worst-dressed man in the room in a dark suit. You may occasionally be the best-dressed, and that is a much better problem.

Everything below is refinement on that.

By occasion

Stated meeting. Business night. Most Lodges: coat and tie. Some Lodges, particularly rural ones and particularly in summer, are considerably more relaxed: polo shirts and slacks. A few, especially in the northeast, are black tie. Ask before your first one.

Degree night. Dress up. This is somebody’s initiation and it happens to him once. Dark suit minimum, and in many Lodges tuxedo for the officers conferring the work.

Your own degrees. Dark suit and tie unless told otherwise. You will be given instructions about how you are to be prepared; follow them exactly and do not overthink it.

Installation of officers. The most formal night of the Lodge year. Black tie is common; dark suit is the floor. Spouses and family usually attend, which raises the bar further.

Grand Lodge visitation. When the Grand Master or a Grand Lodge officer visits, dress at the top of your Lodge’s range. If your Lodge owns tuxedos in the closet, this is why.

Masonic funeral service. Dark suit, white gloves, apron. This is the occasion where gloves are most consistently required across jurisdictions, and where turning up without them is most conspicuous.

Cornerstone laying or public ceremony. Full regalia as directed, and the Lodge will direct you. These are the events where Masonry is being watched by people who are not Masons.

The regional and jurisdictional spread

This is wider than newcomers expect.

• Northeast and mid-Atlantic, Pennsylvania very much included: formal. Dark suit as the norm, black tie for the big nights. Some PA Lodges are tuxedo-standard for stated meetings.
• South and Midwest: coat and tie is typical; summer relaxations are common.
• West: the most variable. Some Lodges are strictly formal, others genuinely open-collar.
• England and the Commonwealth: dark lounge suit or black tie, white shirt, and often a specific tie. Regalia expectations are stricter and the festive board afterward is a formal event in its own right.

The only reliable way to know is to ask the Secretary. Nobody has ever been thought less of for asking.

Gloves

Many jurisdictions require white gloves in open Lodge. Nearly all require them for funerals, cornerstone layings, and public ceremonies.

Buy your own. The Lodge’s communal pair is the wrong size, has been the wrong size since 1974, and will be missing on the night you need it. Plain white cotton is correct and cheap; embroidered ones with the square and compasses are a nice-to-have, not a requirement.

Buy two pairs. One lives in the car.

Aprons

For your degrees and your early meetings, the Lodge provides one. Most jurisdictions present a plain white apron to keep at some point in the process.

Buying your own is a normal thing to do once you are raised, and buying one before you are raised is not. See the Masonic apron guide for types and what to actually look for.

Officers’ aprons and collars are usually Lodge property, not personal. Do not buy them yourself without asking; you may be buying a duplicate of something already in the closet.

Jewelry and what it says

A Masonic ring, a lapel pin, or a tie bar is a normal thing for a Mason to wear and nobody will comment.

Two things to get right:

Do not wear anything you have not earned. A past master’s ring worn by a man who has not sat in the East is the single most-noticed error there is, and the room will clock it instantly. Same for a 32° ring, a Shrine fez, or a Templar cross. This is not gatekeeping: it is the same reason you would not wear someone else’s service medal.

Rings first, everything else second. See the Masonic ring guide, including the points-in-or-out question that generates more argument than it deserves.

The absolute rules

Short list, and they hold everywhere:

• Phone off. Not silent. Off.
• No hats in Lodge except the Master’s, where the jurisdiction has that custom.
• Nothing on your lapel that you have not earned.
• When in doubt, dress up. Nobody has ever been asked to leave for being too well dressed.

And if you cannot afford a suit

Say so, quietly, to the Secretary or to whoever recommended you.

Lodges have closets full of donated formalwear, and there is a very long tradition of a Brother turning up with a spare jacket in your size and saying nothing further about it. Money is the single worst reason to miss your own degree, and any Lodge worth joining will treat it that way.