The London Lounge

Today Børsen, the financial newspaper in Denmark, features a story on sports jackets. It quotes a couple of very knowledgeable London Loungers. They talk about the art of pairing odd jacket and trousers. The photo is from Cordings.

How interesting, I would be very interested to find out what they said about it, but I just hope you didn't give us any credit for being fluent in Danish

Costi wrote:How interesting, I would be very interested to find out what they said about it, but I just hope you didn't give us any credit for being fluent in Danish

Costi, most of it you will already know. The beginning goes something like this: the sports coat is difficult, but if you want to dress casually in a classical way, the sports jacket is important.

Building on manton and Alden it states that contrast between jacket and trousers is important. It also refers to the 30s - the start of the sports jacket.

That's about it

Thank you for posting the newspaper excerpt and the gist of it in English. Danish seems very close to English as I seem to be able to recognize many of the terms used,

I believe one of the most beautiful English queen was Queen Alexandra, apparently a Danish princess. Once I stayed in Queen Alexandra Park, a London suburb to the right of Highgate;. The was an old manufactory that looked like it came right of a picture on a long rectangular tin of tiny English biscuits. I had fond memories of the place, including relaxing in the Park rowing a tiny boat with a pair of paddles and having the privilege of attending a wonderful Chinese play called "Lady Precious Stream"; must have amused the English actors and actresses staging a theatrical show for an Oriental to no end.

HappyStroller wrote:. . . . Danish seems very close to English . . . .

Both are Teutonic languages, along with the other Scandinavian languages (not Finnish or Lappish), German, Dutch, and a few more. And, yes, an educated speaker of one can, with varying difficulty, understand others -- somewhat.

Gruto wrote:It also refers to the 30s - the start of the sports jacket.

Quite incorrectly too - sports coat are older than that and probably go back to the origins of the lounge coat in the latter 19th century. The lounge coat originally started as a form of resort wear for beach and country. It was always meant for casual wear. The sports coat and dinner jackets are both types of lounge coats, so it is perfectly logical that they would arose around about the same time. The dinner jacket was once called a "dress lounge". Edward VII only wore his "dress lounge" for informal dinners in the country. It is perfectly reasonable the someone should further adopt this piece of resort wear for sports such as tennis and fishing.

These two plates both date from 1888:





So you see, the sports coat really was meant for sports, just as the dinner jacket really was meant for dinner.

Sator wrote:Quite incorrectly too - sports coat are older than that and probably go back to the origins of the lounge coat in the latter 19th century. The lounge coat originally started as a form of resort wear for beach and country. It was always meant for casual wear. The sports coat and dinner jackets are both types of lounge coats, so it is perfectly logical that they would arose around about the same time. The dinner jacket was once called a "dress lounge". Edward VII only wore his "dress lounge" for informal dinners in the country. It is perfectly reasonable the someone should further adopt this piece of resort wear for sports such as tennis and fishing.

Sator wrote:So you see, the sports coat really was meant for sports, just as the dinner jacket really was meant for dinner.

Well, it doesn't state that the sports jacket was invented as such in 1930s. It states that it got a firm identity and a name of its own in 1920s and 30s. Moreover, in Danish you usually don't call a blazer "a sports jacket". It also refers to it's origin as sports ware. Nothing wrong with the facts in that piece, IMO

Thanks for the resume, Gruto.

Maybe the sports' coat has some derivation from sporting coats such as:hunt coats, shooting jackets, Norfolk jackets and hacking jackets - just as formal frock and tail coats probably derive from hunting and riding coat styles after all they are called sports' coats - and sport is the main preoccupation of those (such as Ed VII: in the field, at the table, the tables - and indeed in bed), who dictated the styles of dress which still generally prevail: ave et vale!!
NJS.