Last edited by Horace (2008-01-09 01:22:37)
Lucky: looks like it works for you. Who cleans your tiles? Marvelous job.
I really like that.
I rock old Brooks Broz 'Makers' & Jacobi Press. I should get a new one.
Andover looks like the way to go. My alterations chap can then punch in a 3rd button hole...
I'm solidly 'merican-middle so I wear a blazer with just about anything - four-in-hand reps, foulard, club, bow, tieless - chinos, gabs, flannels (no jeans though, I'm not hip enough and my standard issue gut makes it worse). Oxford, broadcloth, plain, stripe, check shirts - only BD collars though.
If you want to witness blazerphilia in the US visit an i-banking conference with "business casual" dress - 9 out of 10 will have a blazer on.
Guess I'm not down on em like you guys, I still see it as very versatile...when a sportcoat (cord, tweed, etc) is not enough but a suit is too much. Like speas I'll wear it with just about anything for ties, and just about anything for pants.
I've got a hopsack (natural-unnatural fiber percentages unknown!) for the summer and a Makers flannel with all patch pockets for the winter.
Last edited by Coolidge (2008-01-09 08:02:25)
I have a vintage 3/2 sack BB blazer similar to what Horace describes above--2 button sleeve, slightly rough fabric, etc.
I'm not wearing it much recently. I like it with jeans, white OCBD, thin regimental stripe tie, and black Chuck Taylors--a slightly punky, edgy take, maybe. Just barely.
They are tricky, in my opinion. They have accumulated so much semiotic freight that you have to mess with the context to reclaim them as a cool garment, if that makes any sense.
I do like the purist approach with chinos and Weejuns, but it has to be done flawlessly to avoid the above mentioned dangers.
PS
The scene of Alan Partridge delivering his speech to the fireplace accessories retailers after impaling his foot on a fence is the funniest thing I have ever seen on TV.
Aha!
...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noTjI3CloYk
...
Ol Chums,
I rather fancy blazers. Light-weight flanel, hopsack, even mid-weight worsted. All good, depending in situ and make-up.
I think the garment may suffer somewhat like the Barbour jackets and Lacoste shirts in that it is ubiquitous.
Cheers,
Trip
PS to ol Horace -- I presume an exception to your rules would clearly lie for the Ben Silver "Classic-American-Blazer", eh?
post scriptum ol chums --
Judging from many of the pics that ol Tony V has loaded, the blazer's ubiquity appears a rather recent advent. I wonder why that is.
Cheers,
Trip
The advertisement with the blazer/gingham shirt dates from 1955.
So, if the full combination of blazer, shirt and tie is thought a bit naff in London, does the same stigma apply to Americans who sport it there? Isn't it just expected that we'll do that and that we don't fit at all neatly into the English class system?
It marks you out as Aliens!
I do like Blazers though... Maybe in twenty years things will all be different again... Around '87 Blazers had a certain edge when worn in the right way...
Roll on 2027.