First, you need to establish what kind of shirts you are talking about - dress shirts, short sleeves, etc - so you can better communicate with your tailor. Then comes the language of stripes: they range from hairline, so narrow they look like a solid colour from a distance, to oversized awning versions for casual occasions, if at all. In between, we have pencil and pin stripes of wider white spaces between coloured lines. Beyond the classic dress stripe, there are evenly spaced candy stripes (about 3mm per stripe) and wider Bengal stripes (about 7mm). For immediate gratification, fine shirtmakers Thomas Pink offer ready-made Bengal and other bold striped shirts (HK$2,250).
Who measures the stripes on their shirts? Dapper, that's who. Here's advice that doesn't require a ruler: check out Dries Van Noten's classic blue and white striped shirt, funked up with yellow paint stains (HK$5,600). It's guaranteed to turn heads. Givenchy is doing wide, horizontal stripes ("awning", apparently) in grey and black with a cool robot print on the front (HK$6,390). But if I had to choose, I'd go for modern. At Alexander McQueen, black lines create a geometric, symmetrical pattern on a white shirt (HK$9,500). And don't even think of ruining any of them with a tie.
Is it really that complicated? I'd take it to mean you have permission to dress to the nines. Bright coloured trousers still look good but I'm a little over them. Why not wear a showstopper on top. Hey, the aforementioned striped shirts, for example! I've had my eye on the new bomber jackets in luxury fabrics. There are also some awesome blazers in amazing prints, if you're looking for an excuse to splash out. So, new clothes? Yes. New shoes? Not necessarily. The invite says "dancing shoes", so I'd stick with a handsome pair you've already broken in. Nobody wants to compound a hangover with blisters.