Sports Jacket - Blazer - Suit - What's The Difference 3 Classic Menswear Pieces
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Hi!
I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men 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 out there looking to purchase a jacket and you're like, "Okay, what is the difference?
Can I wear 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 know
the difference themselves and they're confusing the terminology, confusing the words, and
in 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'm going 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 going to find a lot of the clothing out there will fall somewhere between these,
but using these guides, you're going to be able to make a smart, informed decision and
make sure that you purchase the right jacket, and just as importantly, you wear the right
jacket for the right occasion.
Okay.
Before we get into this, guys, I'd appreciate it if you would subscribe to my YouTube channel.
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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 infographic and article that goes
into more detail than I talk about here in the video.
Let's get into 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 definition
of 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 from a suit.
It actually comes from the same role.
The fabric is right next to each other if they'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 black trousers or a
black jacket, you may find that they actually don’t match up.
Sometimes there's a difference in the weave.
Other times, it may be that if you wear one more than the other, they can start to fade,
so that is one of the reasons I recommend do not try to wear your suit jacket as a blazer
or a sports jacket.
Number one, it has a matching pair of trousers and you keep them together.
The other part about this is suit jackets are going to be the most formal.
In men's style, in men's clothing, usually the most formal items are going to be the
simplest.
You're not going to see any fancy pockets and 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 this
video and you have that bit of confusion, you probably need to focus on the foundation
suits, which are going to be charcoal gray, navy blue, maybe lighter gray.
If you're looking at black tie, which technically a tuxedo is a suit, it is a matching jacket,
matching trousers.
So suit jackets, the buttons normally are going to be on a lot of stuff being produced
today plastic, but hopefully we would see horn 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 black tie.
Now, let's talk about the fit.
A suit jacket is 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 you
warm in cold weather if you're moving around quite a bit, but you're not going to wear
full 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.
All of the style aspects -- and I get into this more in the infographic.
The function, if you look at the lapel right here, this is a sports jacket.
You're usually just going to see, on a suit jacket, notch lapels.
You will occasionally see peak lapels especially in formal wear.
Black tie, you'll see shawl lapels and you will see peak lapels, hopefully not notch
lapels in formal wear.
Guys, that is a suit jacket.
Now, let's go take a step lower.
Let's go to the blazer jacket.
The blazer jacket is interesting because it's a hybrid.
It's going to be more formal than a sports jacket, but it is not a suit jacket because
it's not made with a matching pair of trousers as we had talked about, so let's first talk
about the fit.
I would say blazers you're going to see sometimes are going to be a little bit looser.
They're not going to also be structured.
Suit jackets usually 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 blazers you're going to see out there, especially ones you're buying off the rack,
are going to be in navy blue.
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You're going to see them made from blue worsted serge and that's the classic.
You're going to see flannel.
You're going to see hopsack occasionally, but really any lightweight worsted wool.
You can also sometimes see linen mixed in 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 talk about regatta blazers and stuff in the article, so go check that out if that's
what you want to know about.
Now, the function, the function like I said falls between the suit jacket and the sports
jacket.
Sporting events, weekend events, anytime that a suit isn't appropriate, but you still want
to dress it up with a blazer.
Now, what can you match with a navy blazer?
This actually will apply to a sports jacket as well, but gray flannel trousers, chinos,
jeans -- yes, jeans, you can actually pull it off.
You're also 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's look 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 right here 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 a
sports jacket, is it's actually made to be worn out, to be a bit more rugged.
Nowadays, you're not going to see that as much, but that goes into the style and the
function of the jacket.
So on the back of the jacket, sometimes we'll see pleats.
We'll see arm patches that actually -- well, once they're for a purpose.
Now, they're more for show.
We're also going to see ticket pocket occasionally, so the ticket pocket goes right above the
pocket right here and was for holding a ticket.
We're also going to see on the lapels I talked about, this is a sports lapel which is made
to actually close up the jacket because if you're out hunting, you want to be able to
protect your upper chest and neck area.
We've talked about the fit.
We've talked about the fabric.
I didn’t go -- there are a number of types of tweed.
I'm going to go into more on 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 different
than the navy and maybe bring in a bit of a pattern.
You will also see a wide range of checks and patterns in sports jackets.
This is where it gets to be a little bit of fun.
Now, the function of a sports jacket, of all the jackets, this is the most casual.
Don’t try to wear a sports jacket when a suit is required and a blazer isn't probably
going to be the first odd jacket.
Now, odd jackets cover both sports jackets and blazers.
I would recommend definitely getting a sports jacket after 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 go with this video.
Take care, gentlemen.
I'll see you in the next video.
Bye-bye.
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