Maybe patch pockets are cheaper to make?
I like them on Summer linen leisure suits - of which I see one every 32nd of the month. Still, they look good with linen, IMHO.
It's interesting. I was brought up with the standard (as far as I can tell) UK belief that patch pockets were cheap and were confined to odd jackets which were made of cheap cloth, or were for work, or were unlined. I can see that they add an element of unusualness to other odd jackets and can provide a feature, if you are one of those who wants/needs your clothing to have features.
For a suit they are plainly wrong, in the sense that they impede the lines and the seamlessness which is why you have your jacket and trousers made of the same material and in a homogenous style to start with. Why would you break that up?
They also tend to bag if you put stuff in them (they are designed to do so after all), which is not a formal look.
The internet discussions do not focus on any of this. But that is because these fads are not aspired to because they provide good tailoring or a particular look. Rather they become fetishised for their own sake and consequently every fetishist wants one so that they can feel good. It is a way in which one can stand out from the crowd without being concerned that the crowd think you look foolish, because you comfort yourself that the crowd is ignorant and your online mates are wise. Tailors are the last people listened to in such circumstances: firstly they are in the position of parents saying no to children; secondly, they are part of the great conspiracy of mediocrity which the internet clothes fetishist believes in with all his (always a he) heart; thirdly, it is axiomatic that no one knows better than you and your friends. To admit the falsity of this last proposition is to abandon that happy land where the stares and comments of the hoi polloi lack hurtful capability. If a tailor says you are dressing like a dork then perhaps you are and the sneers of others are justified.
For someone like Jovan - a man who aspires to a state where both manhood and playing with ducks in the bath are equally permissible and consistent with each other - dreamland must not be invaded at any cost. Happiness literally depends on it.
Patch pockets - I love them as an archetypical Ivy League fetish. The casualness is what it's all about. Blazers ideally with that upper patch pocket, too! I agree that it's usually too much or maybe even wrong with most suits, but I like them on some cotton poplin and on a hopsack suit. Very hip!
I have jackets with patch pockets because that's what they came with at the store. Other jackets did not.
I would put more thought into it, but then I'd need to be commissioning ill-fitting, oversold "bespoke" instead of buying RTW that fits me.
No to patch pockets in suits, it looks cheap, stupid and maybe even frumpy.
O.k to patch pockets on odd jackets.
Patch pockets look like-well, patches.
Last edited by fxh (2010-06-01 02:05:26)
A gentleman always dresses with the buildings he will be standing in front of in mind.
Last edited by g- (2010-06-02 21:48:49)
l saw a bloke yesterday in what appreared to be a suit. As he came towards me and stood near me, l discovered he was wearing a navy pinstriped suit jacket, black pants, and boat shoos.
Brendon does all time lows, he wears a dinner coat with jeans.
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showpost.php?p=1020089&postcount=11748
The thing l don't get is why he is always in a room with the curtains shut and the lights turned off. Bizarre.
Last edited by The_Shooman (2010-06-02 23:04:42)