Welcome back!
In today's video I'm going to talk about 8 secrets of a great summer sport coat.
Many many believe that as long as they felt lightweight suit jackets, they;re ready for
summer but that's not true.
Basically we have 8 core principles that are important for a summer sport coat.
One, start with the right weight.
Ofcourse, it's important to have a lightweight jacket because lighter fabrics insulate less
and feel cooler.
However, if your fabric is too light, you will have lots of wrinkles, it will look bad
and you have to find the right balance.
Overall, about 8 to 9 ounces or 240 - 270 grams is a good start a weight because it
will give you a drape.
If you go lighter than that, you may have issues with wrinkles.
Two, remember weight is not everything, The weave is even more important.
The weave of a jacket is extremely important because if it's tightly woven, it will breathe
less and in order to feel cool you want to have as much air flow as possible.
A great open weave fabric is a so called fresco fabric because hwen you stand you can really
feel every wind and it makes you feel cool.In order to determine if your fabric is open
weave or closed, one good way to do it is actually hold it against the light source,
like a light bulb and look through it and an open weave fabric is so open you could
almost read a book through it or some text in a magazine versus a tightly woven fabric
is so that you cannot really read anything through it.
Three, Opt for texture.
Unlike suits, sport coats are meant to be worn in a more casual environment.
In some offices, it's okay to wear them but overall you want the garment to be relaxed,
distinctly different from the suit jacket.
Basically, you will be well dressed without being overdressed and texture is a really
great way to help you achieve that.
In order to get texture, you want coarse weaves and yarns that are slightly irregular you
get some knobs.
For example here, I'm wearing a panama weave jacket which is a wide weave that creates
this waffle structure and alternatively, you can have linen where one yarn is thicker than
the other so you get something irregular and more three dimensional than a regualr business
suit.
Four, go with unlined jackets.
The open weave of your fabric is not enough because you have a second layer of fabric
inside your jacket which is the lining.
Linings are typically made from viscose, bemberg cupro or sometime silk which are all natural
fibers or based on cellulose which is a natural fiber and they're very lightweight however,
the weave is so tight that it restricts airflow.
So even if you have an open weave fabric but if you combine them with the lining, you will
not get the best benefits of the open fabric because the lining acts as a blocker.
The main benefit of linings is A- to protect the outer fabric and to make everything slide
and fit well.
So generally, lining are great but summer, it's more important that you feel cool.
So basically you want an unlined jacket but there are two versions of unlined jackets:
One is completely unlined jackets.
It means your jacket literally has no lining whatsoever, not in the sleeves, not in the
back, and this is a rare version of the unlined jacket usually you only find them with bespoke
garments.
Italians sometimes like it or spaniards or portuguese because they live in very warm
climates and they really want to maximiz the airflow.
Disadvantage of the completely unlined jacket is especially in your sleeves, it sometimes
catches your shirt material and so it doesn't hang well or drape well.
The second unlined option is called half lined or sometimes called quarter lined.
What that means is that your sleeves are lined and your shoulders are lined but your back
and oftentimes the inside front are not lined and it really helps to make you feel cool
but it also lets your sleeves drape easily so it feels comfortable.
Basically, it's the best of both worlds.
Five, select the sewn interlining also known as canvas.
One of the most important aspects of jackets or sport coats is the interlining which is
also known as canvas.
Basically, when you have a piece of fabric, it's two dimensional flat, in order to keep
it in a certain shape, three dimensional around your chest, you have to fixate the interlining
to the outer fabric and connect them.
You can connect them by sewing them together or by gluing them together.
Economically, it's much less expensive to glue these layers together but in terms of
comfort it's really bad because it's a fine fabric, it makes you sweat and the fabric
doesn't breathe as well.
On the other hand, a sewn canvas really feels more comfortable, generally softer and it
allows you to feel more the air and it's also known as the breathing garment.
Basically, you'll have three levels of interlinings.
You have full canvas, half canvas and you have fuse.
Generally, only top quality garments have full canvas because it's the most expensive
way to do it and if you go to a tailor or to a high end made to measure company or rent
to wear company, that;s what you really get, a full canvas jacket or sport coat.
The next step down would be the half canvas jacket, that means that the top oart of your
sport coat is sewn with a canvas versus the bottom part is glued.
The only reason to do that is to save a cost without sacrificing some of the look on top
of the garment where it's more important than the bottom.
Very inexpensive sport coats and usually the ones that are most comfortable are the ones
woth fused interlining.
For summer, you definitely want to avoid it at all cost cos it's a guarantee that you
overheat and sweat a lot.
That being said, not all canvasses are alike, you can have a full sewn interlining canvass
that is much stiffer or softer and ideally for summer jacket, you want as little interlining
as possible and you want it to be as soft as possible so it's really comfortable and
you don't really feel much.
Traditionally, horse hair blended with wool was used but for summer sport coats, it's
better to go with like cotton wool because horse hair is rather stiff and it's not ideal
interlining of canvas that you want for a summer sport coat.
Six, go with a bold pattern.When you have an open weave fabric, what happens is you
can see through one way but also the other way and you don't want people to see what
you're wearing on the inside or if you have a pen in your pocket.
So ideally, a bold pattern a- makes sure you look very differnt from business men but also
it helps to make your garment not see through.
For example, this pattern is really great but you can also try others, windowpanes,
checks, seersucker stripes, madras pattern, all of these things are great for summer sport
coats.
What you definitely want to avoid is things like pinstripes or chalkstripes, they're typically
associated with business suits because sport coats are not just a suit jacket on its own,
they're indistinctly different jacket.
seven, embrace strong colors.
Now, when you don't want to wear a pattern or you don't have one or it doesn't suit you
well, that's okay.
You can also go with stronger typical summer colors.
What I mean by that i avoid the typical black, grey, charcoal, blues and navys and instead
go for something like light blue or nice green and that way you really create a different,
distinct, unique look.
What's also important is you never want solids, you also want slightly mottled colors.
Basically, you can be as creative as you want, maybe red or orange or something turquoise.
ALl these colors can work and it depends on how comfortable you are and how strong they
are.
When in doubt, I recommend go for something that is always a little lighter and interwoven
with white yarns like this one here because that way it softens the look even if you have
a stonger, bolder color.
Eight, choose a single breasted jacket and pay attention to details.
Personally, I love double breasted jackets, I think they're really great on me, they look
really masculine and they're flattering.
However, when it comes to summer sport coats, single breasted is preferrable because it's
simply less fabric that is layered up in front of you so I'm more comfortable when it's hot
outside.
Also, when it comes to details you want to make sure that you either have patch pockets
on your chest, on your side and you can also have details like a center pleat in the back
or like shooting pleats, you can have angled pockets, maybe contrasting color or a little
colored tab.
You definitely want to make sure that you have certain details that look distinctly
different from a business suit.
If you just have a regular flat pocket, two button jacket with a notched lapel that you
also wear to your office, you should always try to mix it up when you have a sport coat.
As far as accessories go, in summer sport coats, I prefer to wear bow ties when it's
hot cos it's just a single layer around my neck and it doesn't drape all the way along
my body which can oftentime insulate and make you feel warmer than you have to be.
If you want to wear a tie, I suggest you go with knit ties because theyhave a very open
weave and they let the air go through.
For a selection of summer knit ties, check out our selection of Fort Belvedere here.
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you next time.
Thank you.