The London Lounge

Dear fellows,

I recently purchased a rather unusual dinner jacket. It is by Sartoria Castangia and is made from very soft fine whale corduroy with grosgrain covered lapels, single button, peak lapeled and unvented. As I said it is unusual but looks quite tasteful with the small ridges in the corduroy echoed in the grosgrain. I would love to hear your suggestions on what to wear with this jacket. In general I prefer to err on the side of simplicity as opposed to trend.

Thanks.

That seems to be a rather interesting mix for a dinner jacket. If it were me, I would agree with your comment and keep the rest of the outfit rather simple and classic. With a jacket like that, I would try to balance it with a somewhat traditional look.

mrwynn,

is the jacket black or another color?

Did this not come with trousers?

Is the corduroy cotton?

Mrwynn,

Many questions but I'll add my thoughts.

If we're talking about and odd dinner jacket, odd meaning not part of a suit, and assuming that we are talking about the jacket being black then consider it as a smoking jacket or "white" dinner jacket and simply substitute the cordouroy for the jacket in your dinner suit --- keeping everything monochromatic. From a distance, the cordouroy should absorb light and act much in the same way as velvet.

If you are having trousers made or need to find them, perhaps it would be best to avoid satin piping on the outside seam in favour of grosgrain to complement the facings or a subtle braid to carry forward on the texture theme.

Enjoy the jacket,
DDM

Thanks for the interest in my post! Let me answer the questions first, the jacket is in fact cotton and is black, however as it is a very fine whale it appears more grey than black. It is not come with trousers, pity. I was planning on wearing it with the trousers that came with my basic black diner suit except as DD MacDonald guessed the piping is satin and not grosgrain, which caused me to pose the question.

It is very difficult to get an idea without a photograph but judging from the description it is like nothing I have seen before in classic men's formal wear, and corduroy would make it quite casual, maybe best not worn with a calssic DJ ensemble but something simpler as you stated earlier.

Perhaps brown trousers?

I have seen dinner suits in brown that have a certain chicness to them.

Richard Anderson has made the same. I think I saw it in the window the other day.

http://www.glaziermarketing.co.uk/richa ... dinner.jpg

I suggest just going with your regular evening wear rig, plus the coat. The coat will get all the attention!

Leon

If your jacket comparable to the Richard Anderson one then follow Leon's advice.