Bring Back the Blazer
You should wear a sports jacket.
No, really.
This timeless raiment will rescue you from your fashion funk. And a sports coat also has the capacity to coax us out from our comfort zones, sartorially and socially.
I started wearing one a few years ago, and caught the bug. I had long liked the look, but lacked the courage to cultivate it. Thus my experiment was one part dressing better, one part dare. I wanted to wear one, of course. But also see if I could grow into the garment, to move from self-conscious to comfortable in it. Upshot: the sports coat has become like a second skin for me.
Especially so for an introverted individual, stepping out in public donning this much-neglected wardrobe item can be an eye-opening exercise in stepping outside our well-worn habits. That’s certainly been the case for me. I wouldn’t have ventured to casually wear a blazer five years ago. Now it’s a calling card. This has pried open a stuck window into what other internal shifts might be possible with a little perseverance.
The term blazer is said to have originated around 1825, when members of the St. John’s College rowing team adopted a jacket as part of its uniform. The Cambridge crew’s coat was a vivid red, (a blazing shade, one might say) and so the term stuck. Blazers are usually devoid of any pattern, and can often be identified by buttons that contrast with fabric.
The sports coat or jacket is the blazer’s not-so serious brother. The former is less formal, marked by buttons that blend right in with jacket colors and patterns, which vary substantially. The garment takes its name from teams that wore them while vying in various sports. The jackets spread to spectators attending such events, and from there out into the fashion zeitgeist.
Sports coats range from the most minimalist (a solid gray or brown), to outrageous. You’ll see them patterned as if a lumberjack flannel and a blazer had a baby. I prefer more reserved motifs, but your mileage and moxie will vary.
We’ll use the terms sports jacket and blazer interchangeably here, as both are suitable for our purposes. To my ear, the two have become synonymous in public parlance. The same goes with sports coat (American) vs. sport coat (European). These distinctions might serve us in a game of Trivial Pursuit, but not so much in our pursuit of a better wardrobe.
That said, knowing things is fun, especially when employed making one’s friends feel ignorant and foolish. Follow this Guy online and you’ll learn more fine details of fashion than you can shake a yardstick at.
But back to that sports jacket.
Start conservatively. Might I suggest an earthy brown blazer to begin with? This neutral color complements just about anything else you’ll wear. If you lean heavily on jeans as a clothing crutch, as I used to, a sports jacket will still instantly and substantially upgrade your look. Wear one over that worn concert shirt, or even a solid tee.
Consider yourself clueless in the clothing department? I feel you. But fear not. There are tons of tutorials at your fingertips. One great segue into discovering and developing your style is to create a free account on Pinterest. Here’s one of my boards, a collection where I curate all things sports jackety.
“Start copying what you love,” said Yohji Yamamoto. “Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find yourself.”
The Japanese designer and master tailor has it right. Life is imitation. Then improvisation. Then identity.
Let it be said that all this blazer business applies equally for all sexes. J.Crew is a brand that’s been ingenious and intrepid at adorning women in blazers for a generation. Behold actress and model Lauren Hutton sporting a flannel version of the jacket to grace the catalog’s 1991 fall/winter issue. That look slaps even today, and has done during the three decades since.
Speaking of cooler months, we’re on the cusp of autumn here in New England as I write this. Another unsung virtue of the sports coat: warmth. Get one with a full liner, don it over a cozy sweater, and you’re dapper for when temps dip into the 30s. Layer amply underneath and add a scarf, you could brave the 20s.
Some office environments vex staff with climate-control chaos. Too little or too much AC in the summer, not enough heat during colder months. Arctic in one room, Sahara-like in another just down the hall. But the sports coat likewise contains multitudes, has you covered.
Blazers balance in between worlds—outdoor and indoor, casual and courtly. The garment banishes goosebumps off our arms, and can be shed in seconds if it gets too hot under the collar. I know of no other clothing item that can do this with such professionalism and panache.
Pockets. The blazer has you covered all over. Many brands sport at least five, most of which have plenty of room for your phone, wallet, etc. Unless you’re perpetually glued to yours, you’ll forget that device nestled in the interior chest pocket is even there. I like the flapped version of pockets on the hip, as they’re a bit more rustic or outdoorsy.
Another serendipitous side-effect of the sports coat: As you grow more comfortable wearing one, you’ll feel more at ease in your skin during that next job interview when you don that suit. You don’t want to wait until the morning of your big day to fuss and fiddle with the fit. You’ll slide right into that liner just as you’ve done a hundred times before, and it’ll feel the opposite of awkward. Dare I say confident? Dare to dream, friend.
A simple but stylish garment has changed the way I think about change. What others will call a trivial victory, I call transformative. The blazer has become sort of a tailored talisman for me, a wearable piece of proof that we can evolve.
The clothing that covers us is a sphere of influence almost fully within our control. Guard such domains jealously. And I’ve found that it’s a sphere (like exercise, diet, etc.) that’s positively self-perpetuating. It spreads.
I’m thinking of that crew, all pulling together and cutting through the water two hundred years ago. The jackets I wear have become for me a sort of uniform that way. I’m still workshopping the name. Team Progressive? Team Transformative? Tryouts ongoing. You in?