Odd Jackets - Sport Coats - Blazers - Men's Suit Jacket - Menswear Clothing Terminology

Odd Jackets - Sport Coats - Blazers - Men'sSuit Jacket - Menswear Clothing Terminology Hi.

Iím Antonio Centeno, the founder of RealMen Real Style.

And today I'm going to talking about sports jackets, blazers, odd jackets.

Whatís the difference? Why do we use all these different terminology and how can youput it to use in your wardrobe? Okay.

So we used these words over, I see themin the industry often used interchangeably.

But my understanding and you know, this isup for debate, you know, depending on, you know, what form youíre on, I guess what sideof the pawn youíre on and you know, what camp youíre in.

But Iím going to give youmy view.

So take it with a grain of salt but this is based on of my research, my understanding,my talking with the lot of the experts in the field.

Okay.

So the odd jacket.

The term odd jacketsimply means any jacket that is not made to have a particular pair of trousers to go withit.

So a suit is defined as a jacket in a paired trousers made from the same fabric.

Odd jackets, by the very name, do not have a matching pair of trousers.

So any jacketout there that does not have a matching pair of trousers, whether it be a blazer of sportsjacket, is technically an odd jacket.

So thatís an all encompassing word.

You donít see it used very much because itjust sounds odd.

And therefore, Iím not going to talk about odd jackets.

And thatís kindof like the overarching word.

But Iím going to talk about the two subsets of odd jackets.

And thatís the blazer and sport jackets.

And these, in my opinion are very different.

Oh Iíve seen some writers use them interchangeablyand I think that that ñ I think itís wrong.

And the reason ñ because I think the blazeris a much more structured piece, sports jackets are more general and you can even say, a blazeris a sports jacket but Iím not going to go down in that path.

Iím simply going to saythat a blazer is a blazer.

Sports jackets, I think they develop afterblazer.

I think like 40 or 50 years later.

And so I look at them as their own pieces.

And they were developed primarily for the man of sport, the man who wanted to stilllook good but was going to be playing tennis, was going to be going out hunting, and hestill wanted a jacket to wear.

So letís talk about blazers.

What makes ablazer unique? Well, one of the first things or youíre going to notice that they are almostalways blue.

Now, blazers can come in red, they can come in green, they can come in othershades of very dark, I think somber colors.

But what youíre going to see is primarily,they are navy blue.

And youíre going to see them in a blue worsted thatís consideredby many of the experts, the classic fabric for it to be made from.

But youíll see themin flannel, you go seem them in hopsack, youíll see them in other, just a regular worstedwool.

So blazers besides being navy blue, they alsohave oftentimes very unique buttons.

So youíll mother of pearl on blazers occasionally.

Youíllsee silver.

Youíll see gold buttons.

Youíll see brass buttons.

Youíll see family heirlooms.

So all types of different things used for buttons on blazers.

But the key is the blazerbuttons always stand out a bit more.

Although there were some modern men who ñ they donítwant to stand out and they particularly choose to go with a very muted button.

The other thing about the blazer is its navalhistory and its association with, I think anything nautical.

So anytime youíre on ñyou go to Anapolis or you know, out to Monterey, California thatís where a blazer -- itísgoing to have a great feel to it.

Itís going to be something that ñ it just has a verystrong and very deep history and association with bolts, supposedly from the HMS blazerswhere it gets its name.

You know, thatís up for debate on that story.

But in any case,I would say thatís what categorizes a blazer.

One other thing, blazers also can be double-breasted.

You rarely ever see that.

In fact, Iíve almost never see it in sports jacket.

But blazersare, I think by definition, a bit more formal than sports jackets.

And therefore, youíllsee them as double-breasted.

And usually when youíre wearing a blazer, you want to weara tie.

Now Iím actually wearing a sports jackethere and you may wonder, you know, a lot of it ñ well this looks like a lot like a blazerbut itís actually a sports jacket.

So thatís probably a great transition.

What makes asports jacket? Well to me a sports jacket is a general termfor pretty much anything that is not a blazer.

So sports jackets have the word sport in them.

And thatís because they were developed mostly in the 1920s and 30s, whenever men were startingto exercise, more get out and play sports and they wanted to be gentlemenís sports.

And they wanted a jacket that was made particularly for the actual sport.

So we saw this in tennis,moved over into hunting -- actually I hunting, itís been aroundÖ Öfor a long time.

There have been jacketslike the Norfolk.

And these jackets were actually developedwith their own unique style.

So you know, this jacket doesnít have it, but on the backof some of the hunting jackets, they would actually have a lot of vents.

So the jacketcould open up more so that ñ you know, a shooting jacket.

It wouldnít be a restrictedif youíre going be firing a rifle.

So these jackets enabled you to look likea gentleman and behave like a gentleman but at the same time be a ñ you know, a mobilesportsman and be able to do pretty much what ñ if you think about, what most of us weuse performance gear when weíre out.

You know doing these extreme sports or you knowthe tri-athletes, these guys are actually wearing tweet suits.

And tweet is pretty rough.

A lot of peopletheyíre very careful with their wool tweet because they spend a lot of money on it.

Butwhen it comes down to it, a lot of these sports jacket fabrics were developed to be able todo it, you know, take a rough and tumble.

Thatís why on sports jacket youíll see pocketsor shoulder ñ Iím sorry ñ elbow patches.

Well that is so that you can put the elbowdown on a rougher area and not have to worry about it.

You know, another one on shootingjackets youíll see actually a leather patch up here.

You know, all of these actually hada reason for being in existence.

So getting ñ letís get to the modern sports jacket.

The modern sports jacket, youíre going tosee a wide range of fabrics.

And in fact this is a sports jacket simply because I got acheck pattern in it.

Itís actually a glen check here.

And another thing with sports jackets is theyíregoing to be a little bit less formal.

So youíre going to see ñ I use what is it, a patchpocket on this.

You canít see my bottom but I got, let me see if I can, yeah, it probablydidnít pop out right.

But in any case, use it more ñ use all typesof styles on sports jacket.

So I love sports jacket simply because theyíre less restrictivethan suits or blazers and you can do -- have all types of fun with them.

I mean look atthis really unique lapel over here.

Itís a little bit of ñ you know, of a sporty look.

I saw this one time in a magazine, you know, from a designer that came up with this yearsago and I was like, ìHey, I want to do this on my sports jacket.

î Another thing with sports jackets besidesthe wide range of style, the wide range of fabrics, the fact that they were designedfor sport, I think sports jackets theyíre just overall going to be less formal thanblazers or any other type of you know, trying to match a suit jacket with a pair of jeans.

And so they can go with denim.

And I really like to wear sports jacket with denim, alwayssports jacket looks great a pair of odd trousers like corduroy or gray flannels or somethingto that extent.

Okay.

So hopefully that clarifies things again.

Youíve got odd jackets, youíve got blazers, youíve got sports jackets and thatís howtheyíre all sort of related.

Both blazers and sports jackets are odd jackets.

Blazersare not necessarily, you know, some people argue but I think theyíre separate becausethey came about a different time periods.

Okay.

Hopefully, I did not confuse you.

IfI did, I guess you can send me an email and Iíll either redo theÖ.

Source: Youtube