It's one of the busiest times of the year for the hire of men's formalwear. Rosita Boland tracks a week in the life of a tuxedo.

A man walks into a shop and hires a tuxedo. How many times has it been hired before? If you're renting it from Black Tie, the chain of dress-hire shops, which has 14,000 suits for rent, the answer is fewer than you probably think. Usually, it's no more than 10 times, says Niall O'Farrell, the company's managing director.

This is partly because, whereas a man who has bought a tuxedo might hang it carefully back in his wardrobe after a night out, getting a couple of wears before taking it to a dry-cleaner, a hired tux must be dry-cleaned after every wear, even if the jacket has spent most of the night hanging on the back of a chair. Frequent dry-cleaning will wear out the fabric, but punters paying to hire a suit rightly expect it to be freshly cleaned.

September and October are exceptionally busy times for formalwear hire, partly because of weddings but mainly because of debs. Christmas is also very busy, with an increasing number of people hiring suits to wear to their office parties, some of which have become very formal.

It's €45.50 a night to hire a standard single-breasted-jacket-and-trousers tuxedo, size 42 regular. This is what O'Farrell describes as "the London city dinner jacket look", although why specifically London is a mystery up there along with tying a bow tie.

This particular suit was hired for the first time on Friday, December 3rd. It was rented by Wade Wise, managing director of the HOK Residential estate agency. Does a man in a job like that not have his own tuxedo? "I do have one," says Wise. "But it was looking a bit old. I don't go to many black-tie events, so I decided to rent one this time."

He picked it up at 6 p.m. from Black Tie's branch on Lower Baggot Street, in Dublin, on his way home from work. Two hours later Wise was wearing it at the grandly named Fingal Harriers Hunt Ball, at the Grand Hotel in Malahide. "I was there as a guest," he says. "I don't hunt, but some of the people at the ball had actually been hunting earlier in the day."

It was a big bash, with about 300 guests, preceded by drinks in the bar. "Dinner, let me see. I know my wife would remember." Wise searches his memory. "Tomato soup! Beef!" he says eventually, with the happy surprise of somebody pulling a rabbit from a hat. "And lots of red wine."

There were no formal speakers at the evening, but the master of the hunt said some words of welcome. After dinner there was a charity auction. "Lots of things: a gift voucher for a ladies' boutique in Malahide, hampers, a day's hunting." Hunting what? "With the Harriers. They hunt hares, not foxes - something I only found out that night."

His table of 12 bid for a hamper of Christmas drinks. Were they successful? First he says no, then corrects himself. "Do you know, I think we did get it, but I'm not sure what happened to it."

He had a good night in his rented tuxedo, the jacket of which he took off when the dancing started. "It wasn't as corporate as some of the other dinners you go to. There were a lot of people we wouldn't have known, so it was a good mix."

His wife, Tracey, coaxed him up to dance a couple of times, "although dancing isn't really my forte". They left at 1 a.m., and he returned the suit to Lower Baggot Street on Monday morning.

Once it got back to the branch it went overnight to Black Tie's own dry-cleaner before returning to the rail for a second rental.

On Wednesday an architect called Gerry Tyrrell ran into Lower Baggot Street at 6.15 p.m. and just caught the last fitting of the day. He rented the size-42 tuxedo and rushed home to change. Less than half an hour later he was at the Morrison hotel with his wife, Catherine, having a pre-dinner drink.

By 7.30 p.m. he was drinking champagne in the formal lobby of 10 Ormond Quay, a pristinely restored Georgian house that is available for rent to private parties.

Tyrrell hired the suit because "the black-tie event is something I don't do regularly; they're very few and far between. And your shape does change from time to time, so if you rent one you'll always have the right size".

Although the dinner party he was going to was black tie, Tyrrell didn't wear a bow tie. "I like to mix things up a little," he says. "If you get any opportunity to express yourself you might as well take it."

The event was a private dinner party hosted by two colleagues. "Being architects, it was so interesting to see how the house had been restored. It's really impressive, a very beautiful place."

After the champagne reception their party of 10 sat down to dinner in a room lined with mirrors.

Tyrrell, like Wise, has difficulty recollecting what was on the menu. "Um, soup, I think, yes, definitely soup." He can't remember what it was, though. "I know my wife would remember." Sole followed.

"There was so much talking and banter that the food came and went without me noticing," he confesses.

When dessert arrived - "something chocolatey" - so did the opera singers. "There were five of them, three women and two men. They sang opera to us while we had the dessert course. That was a real surprise. They had a very entertaining compère with them as well." He recalls that they sang something from La Bohème.

The Tyrrells left reluctantly at midnight, to go home to relieve a babysitter. "It was a wonderful night. The others stayed on until about one, I think."

He dropped the tux back to Lower Baggot Street at 9 a.m. the next day, on his way to work. Once again it went overnight to the dry-cleaner.

After that the size 42 was supposed to be hired by a man who was going to EBS Building Society's Christmas party, at the Berkeley Court hotel on Friday evening. On Friday morning he decided to hire a different suit, one that wouldn't have a camera lens pointed at it at some point during the evening. "I'm being brought to lunch the same day, so I'll be drinking early," said its former hirer.

The tuxedo was then hired by a man who was going to an accountants' Christmas party in Leopardstown, Co Dublin, also on the Friday. An hour before he is due to leave for his night out there are second thoughts.

His wife is concerned that his career will be ruined if he is photographed in the suit at his bash. I know this because she is screaming down the phone. I hope their night improved.

No matter what you're wearing, it seems, hired tux or not, office Christmas parties tend to bring out those little stresses in relationships.