white tie vs formalwear

white tie and formalwear both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
white tie	Yes	No	No	No
formalwear	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, formalwear is a hypernym of white tie; that is, formalwear is a word with a broader meaning than white tie:

Other hypernyms of white tie include evening clothes, evening dress, eveningwear.

white tie (noun)	formalwear (noun)
bow tie worn as part of a man's formal evening dress	attire to wear on formal occasions in the evening
formalwear consisting of full evening dress for men