some kind of Minbari robe like arrangement

Mmm. As cartesiandaemon mentions above, he and I had part of this conversation recently in the pub, and one of the things I did say at the time was that the costume design in shows like B5 do manage to demonstrate that one doesn't have to wear a shirt and tie in order to look smart and formal. I was unconvinced that I'd actually want to dress exactly like something that had obviously come straight out of B5, but it does at least demonstrate that plausible alternatives ought to exist if one only has the costume-design skills.

When I said all of that in the pub I was mostly thinking of the humans' clothes in B5, which often manage to look slightly futuristic but still basically suitlike and do so without involving shirts and ties. Looking further afield to the alien races didn't occur to me, but now you mention it the Minbari do have a lot of good stuff there...

I _think_ I managed to look reasonably smart and formal at my wedding, without using either a shirt or tie. Feel free to disagree. ;-)

I've just realised there appear to be no photos on the web of what I wore (or of the wedding in general). Must fix that.