5 Ways to wear a Jacket

Written on May 23, 2009 – 2:40 am | by dodo

5-wyas-to-wear-a-jacket-1

Sometimes you just don’t want to wear a suit, but you want to achieve a similar level of sharpness as the suit provides. Enter the jacket (in some circles, known as a sport jacket): pretty much a suit, but without the pants. Jackets range from the traditional navy wool blazer and elbow-patched professorial Harris tweed to the rumpled cream linen number, a cashmere glen plaid, or even sleek Italian leather. Americans haven’t yet embraced the jacket as European men have—walk the streets of Paris, Rome, or Bremerhaven (well, maybe not Bremerhaven), and check out all those elegantly attired Euro-dudes who are not wearing suits. This is something to emulate.

Tell me again why I want to wear a jacket?

Sartorial splendor aside, think pockets, pockets, pockets. I have one with eight, and all but one of them (the pen pocket) are big enough to hold my cute little cell phone.

5 jackets to own

Brown corduroy

Navy

Tweed or herringbone

Cream linen

Plaid

Jackets are for:

Weddings … not funerals.

Dinner dates … not job interviews.

Movies … not the opera.

Graduations … not financial meetings.

Brunches … not bar mitzvahs.

5 ways to wear – jacket

What’s with the gold buttons?

First of all, they should be `;brass, not gold. They shouldn’t be shiny, shouldn’t be garish, shouldn’t look like a rapper’s teeth. If they’re too shiny for your taste, let them naturally tarnish, or remove them and have them dipped in bleach. Brass buttons are innocuous and traditional, part of the nautical heritage of the jacket, and I think they belong there.