[2] The idea for Tenue de soirée came to Blier around the time of Les Valseuses, and his intention then was to cast Depardieu with his co-star from the earlier film, Patrick Dewaere.

However, an enthusiastic article in Gai pied, entitled "Touche pas à la femme Blanc" sealed the realisation that no mockery was intended.

He noted that the characters were marked by aggression "ils s’engueulent, sont mécontents, presque toujours du mauvais côté de la rue" ("they argue, are unhappy, almost always on the wrong side of the track").

In a dance hall, an ebullient ex-convict named Bob befriends an impecunious young couple in the middle of a row, the shrewish Monique and the passive Antoine.

Tenue de soirée achieved ticket sales of 3,144,799 in French cinemas, of which 823,433 were in Paris where it stayed as most popular attraction at the box office for two weeks.