Blazer Specs

[Guest]

What are the generally accepted specifications for a casual wear blazer: DB, no vent, lap pockets, dark blue hopsack, brass buttons optional?

[Guest]

What are the generally accepted specifications for a casual wear blazer: DB, no vent, lap pockets, dark blue hopsack, brass buttons optional?

I think ther are some slight disagreements on this. In The Suit Manton states that a 4 button with patch pockets and side vents are to be considered as the classic blazer. This might be a classic casual blazer. The one you describes seems to the formal classic blazer.

/G

[Guest]

SG is right - you will never get agreement.

The style manton notes is classic, but I think it is classic in the somewhat historical use of the term. That is not to say that a 4 button DB blazer with patch pockets is anachronistic or costume. To the contrary, it is lovely and perfectly fine liking. Rather, I only mean that is much less frequently seen and has been replaced by variants that have entered the cannon as classic blazers though usage. In the US, the SB hopsack with flapped patch pockets in 3 roll 2 sack model and lapped seams comes to mind.

Personally, I like a 6x2 DB with flap pockets. It seems like a classic model to me, even if it is a step or so removed from the original.

dopey

[Guest]

For everyday, casual wear in the city (but not to wear at a formal yacht club with their own rules), my vote: DB, 6x2, no vents, lap pockets, horn buttons, mid-dark blue, any mid-weight cloth you like.

Interesting variations: linen/cottons for Summer; MOP buttons, any shade of blue from lighter to dark, with herring bone or other such self patterns that please you.

You don't want to be too nautical with the brass buttons and all, I think.

I think that the above configuration would serve you pretty well for most casual situations, including city wear.

Dress it up or down.

Wear with flannel pants, twills, jeans, khakis. Wear with or without tie. A nice, strong contrasting striped shirt adds pop. Wear an ascot or scarf if you're up for it.

A DB blazer can be very elegant if dressed up properly. I think that we don't need to refer to its nautical , sporty heritage anylonger but rather can use it as a versatile, week day, week end sports jacket.

[Guest]

On this side of the Atlantic, the blazer started out as a Navy kind of a thing and it had 8 buttons. That is the classic blazer we know in Europe.



Our young Duke wore them around town from an early age with the rest of the team.



A few years later, probably because the button factories could not produce enough, they dropped down to six buttons, as our bad Bond is modeling in this pic.



And the blazer finally arrived at its point of destination as a 6x2.



The blazer in Europe is a DB whiles it is more commonly a SB in the States.

DB 6 x 2 would be my choice, but the 8 buttoner has a certain charm.

Cheers

M Alden

[Guest]

That's a very nice pictorial history in a nutshell.

[Guest]

I don't think the illustrations below from 1899 and 1897 question the position of the 6x2 blazer with flap pockets as the classic blazer today, but they might display a historic connection between the db blazer and patch pockets?

BTW, buy the book, it's wonderful: Men's Clothing Fabrics in the 1890s:





Saludos,
Gruto

[Guest]

Not sure about the flaps on the pockets but, apart from that niggle, the above posts sum it all up very well for me. Reefer jacket is another term where the article has nautical connections (yacht Clubs etc) and gilt Nelson buttons are very becoming (an anchor at an angle set on on a wreath, maybe of laurel). Serge, as mentioned in the last post, is a useful cloth; although it will shine up if you're not careful. There are various stories about the origin of the name 'blazer'. My favourite is that, although Royal Navy officers had settled uniforms from 1748 (designed and made by the precursors of Gieves & Hawkes), the ratings didn't and the Captain of HMS Blazer commissioned short navy blue reefer jackets for the crew to smarten them all up for the occasion of an inspection by Queen Victoria. Interestingly, naval officers' uniforms (such as those illustrated in Michael Alden's post) are actually black.
NJS

[Guest]

And all above buttoning the bottom button of their DB jacket

[Guest]

I think that the rule on buttoning the last button is different where there are six that actually button rather than four and two 'show'.
NJS

[Guest]

Is there a rule, really? I always button both working buttons on all my DB suit/blazer coats (6 x 2). Anything else looks sloppy to me. (The inner, invisible, one, of course, is always buttoned as well).
As for the rest of the details, I have two vents, and normal pocket with flaps.

….and I reserve the right to unbutton the coat, even when standing up, if I feel like it. Harrumph!

Frog in Suit

[Guest]

Rule: so I was told by the head cutter at Davies & Son in about 1986 - maybe convention is a better word.
double harrumph!!!
The Crimson-Faced Colonel.

[Guest]

Rule: so I was told by the head cutter at Davies & Son in about 1986 - maybe convention is a better word.
double harrumph!!!
The Crimson-Faced Colonel.

“Triple Harrumph!”
[Frog in Suit’s face turns a very pretty, pre-apoplectic purple, as he flings a china vase to the floor. Restoring his equanimity by a supreme effort of the will, however, he contents himself by meekly pointing out:]
- I have never heard anything about that “rule” or more properly as you rightly point out, “convention” from my tailors, going back to the early 80’s. Perhaps they were being gentle with me.
- The photographic evidence seems mixed: some do button, some do not. I am far too lazy to try to do a count and derive statistics.
- What would a pre-war archetypal gentleman have done? Think, perhaps, Anthony Eden?

Yours, cum grano salis.

Frog in Suit

[Guest]

Hello Frog,
I have just shot myself in the foot because I have posted a famous portrait, by Baron, of Jack Buchanan in the 'Sartorial heros' thread in the Dressing Room and he is completely buttoned.
NJS

[Guest]

NJS

If you study the pictures from the 30s you will find DBs were very often buttoned by elegant dressers. And since this period was at the apex of masculine elegance in our time, we can assume this practice has a measure of validity.

I will wear my DBs closed as often as open. The pictures in the "lapel" discussion prove this point.

I am not a great fan of rules or conventions, preferring "taste" to both. I have seen men who follow the rules to absolute perfection dress like perfect Troggies just as easily as those who ignore all of them. Taste is a very hard thing to develop or learn. Rules can be easily consumed by the mass of men. So we understand why rules evolved and proliferated while "good taste" remains an asset of a very few.

Cheers

M Alden