Sports Jacket - Blazer - Suit - What's The Difference? | 3 Classic Menswear Pieces

Sports Jacket - Blazer - Suit - What's TheDifference 3 Classic Menswear Pieces [0:00:00] Hi! I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of RealMen Real Style.

Today, I'm going to be talking about the sports jacket, the blazer jacket,the suit jacket.

What is the difference? Many of you guys are out there.

You're outthere looking to purchase a jacket and you're like, "Okay, what is the difference? Can Iwear my suit jacket as a blazer jacket? Is this blazer jacket technically a sports jacket?"And it doesn’t help that a lot of people out there selling these items don’t knowthe difference themselves and they're confusing the terminology, confusing the words, andin many cases, you see clothing being made which is kind of a hybrid between them.

The rules I'm going to give you today, I'mgoing to talk about each of the jackets and I'm going to talk about the fit, the fabric,and the function of each of them.

I'm going to give you general guidelines.

You're goingto find a lot of the clothing out there will fall somewhere between these, but using theseguides, you're going to be able to make a smart, informed decision and make sure thatyou purchase the right jacket, and just as importantly, you wear the right jacket forthe right occasion.

Okay.

Before we get into this, guys, I'd appreciateit if you would subscribe to my YouTube channel.

That way, these videos come right to you.

I don’t want you to miss any of them and I put out these little ghost videos, so ifyou're not subscribed, you're not going to get them.

In addition, if you want more information,go to Real Men Real Style.

I'm going to link down below, but I've created an entire infographicand article that goes into more detail than I talk about here in the video.

Let's getinto it.

Let's start off with the suit jacket.

Now,many of you guys are familiar with this and we're going to talk specifically the definitionof a suit jacket, is a jacket that is made with basically a matching pair of trousers.

And when I say matching, it's made from the exact same fabric.

In fact, when I used to-- and I still own my custom clothier -- whenever we make clothing, we make sure it comes froma suit.

It actually comes from the same role.

The fabric is right next to each other ifthey're cut.

What's interesting is in a mill, over time the actual color and the way things-- consistency, they try to keep high, but if you actually try to match a pair of blacktrousers or a black jacket, you may find that they actually don’t match up.

Sometimesthere's a difference in the weave.

Other times, it may be that if you wear one more than theother, they can start to fade, so that is one of the reasons I recommend do not tryto wear your suit jacket as a blazer or a sports jacket.

Number one, it has a matchingpair of trousers and you keep them together.

The other part about this is suit jacketsare going to be the most formal.

In men's style, in men's clothing, usually the mostformal items are going to be the simplest.

You're not going to see any fancy pocketsand you probably should avoid in your first few suits fancy patterns, stripes, checks.

Now, those things are in some suits, but we're talking here -- and if you're watching thisvideo and you have that bit of confusion, you probably need to focus on the foundationsuits, which are going to be charcoal gray, navy blue, maybe lighter gray.

If you're lookingat black tie, which technically a tuxedo is a suit, it is a matching jacket, matchingtrousers.

So suit jackets, the buttons normally aregoing to be on a lot of stuff being produced today plastic, but hopefully we would seehorn on higher end jackets, again, mostly going to be navy, charcoal gray, lighter gray,occasionally black, although I'm not a big fan of black for suits unless it is blacktie.

Now, let's talk about the fit.

A suit jacketis made to fit a bit slimmer and should fit you slimmer.

Now, a lot of guys buy suit jackets,which are too big, but a suit jacket is not really made to be layered with clothing underneath.

You should wear a shirt under it, occasionally maybe a sweater vest, something to keep youwarm in cold weather if you're moving around quite a bit, but you're not going to wearfull sweaters underneath them, and we'll talk about in a few minutes why that's important.

We've talked about the fit can be a bit closer.

The fabric, again in suit jackets, it's mostly going to be solids.

You will see some pinstripes,some chalk stripes, and some checks.

The function of the jacket is again the most formal.

Allof the style aspects -- and I get into this more in the infographic.

The function, ifyou look at the lapel right here, this is a sports jacket.

You're usually just goingto see, on a suit jacket, notch lapels.

You will occasionally see peak lapels especiallyin formal wear.

Black tie, you'll see shawl lapels and you will see peak lapels, hopefullynot notch lapels in formal wear.

Guys, that is a suit jacket.

Now, let's go take a step lower.

Let's goto the blazer jacket.

The blazer jacket is interesting because it's a hybrid.

It's goingto be more formal than a sports jacket, but it is not a suit jacket because it's not madewith a matching pair of trousers as we had talked about, so let's first talk about thefit.

I would say blazers you're going to see sometimesare going to be a little bit looser.

They're not going to also be structured.

Suit jacketsusually have more structure in the shoulders.

Blazers, you will sometimes see structure.

Other times, you may see a bit looser of a build especially if it's of Italian heritage.

Let's talk about the fabric.

Most blazersyou're going to see out there, especially ones you're buying off the rack, are goingto be in navy blue.

[0:05:04] You're going to see them made from blue worstedserge and that's the classic.

You're going to see flannel.

You're going to see hopsackoccasionally, but really any lightweight worsted wool.

You can also sometimes see linen mixedin there, but navy blue is going to be most of the colors there.

Now, there are some exceptions.

I know you're going to see red, you're going to see green, but those are very rare.

I talkabout regatta blazers and stuff in the article, so go check that out if that's what you wantto know about.

Now, the function, the function like I saidfalls between the suit jacket and the sports jacket.

Sporting events, weekend events, anytimethat a suit isn't appropriate, but you still want to dress it up with a blazer.

Now, whatcan you match with a navy blazer? This actually will apply to a sports jacket as well, butgray flannel trousers, chinos, jeans -- yes, jeans, you can actually pull it off.

You'realso going to see colored twill, cords.

There are a wide number of things.

Blazer jackets,it's not going to -- the big thing right here, it's not going to have to match, guys.

I know many of you guys are waiting for this,the buttons on a blazer jacket.

Normally, we're going to see gold, silver, mother-of-pearl.

The buttons usually stand out on a blazer.

Now, let's go to the sports jacket.

Let'slook at the word, sports jacket.

The idea was this was the sporting man's jacket.

Because of that, let's talk about the fit.

Remember I said that you shouldn't layer with a suit jacket.

Well, with the sports jacket,you can layer.

This is a sports jacket.

It's made from -- we've got a tweed fabric righthere and what's really nice about this is that I can actually wear a sweater underneath.

It's a little bit looser than some of my suit jackets, and that's the cool thing about asports jacket, is it's actually made to be worn out, to be a bit more rugged.

Nowadays, you're not going to see that asmuch, but that goes into the style and the function of the jacket.

So on the back ofthe jacket, sometimes we'll see pleats.

We'll see arm patches that actually -- well, oncethey're for a purpose.

Now, they're more for show.

We're also going to see ticket pocketoccasionally, so the ticket pocket goes right above the pocket right here and was for holdinga ticket.

We're also going to see on the lapels I talked about, this is a sports lapel whichis made to actually close up the jacket because if you're out hunting, you want to be ableto protect your upper chest and neck area.

We've talked about the fit.

We've talked aboutthe fabric.

I didn’t go -- there are a number of types of tweed.

I'm going to go into moreon this in the article and the infographic, but we're going to be thinking Donegal tweed,Harris tweed, Houndstooth.

You'll also see some solids in brown, green, gray, and blue.

Blue is pretty common and I like that especially if you go with something that is differentthan the navy and maybe bring in a bit of a pattern.

You will also see a wide rangeof checks and patterns in sports jackets.

This is where it gets to be a little bit offun.

Now, the function of a sports jacket, of allthe jackets, this is the most casual.

Don’t try to wear a sports jacket when a suit isrequired and a blazer isn't probably going to be the first odd jacket.

Now, odd jacketscover both sports jackets and blazers.

I would recommend definitely getting a sports jacketafter you have your first suit and then getting a blazer.

Hopefully you guys found this useful, again,a lot more information in the article and the infographic, which I've created to gowith this video.

Take care, gentlemen.

I'll see you in the next video.

Bye-bye.

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