Sport coat and jeans??

[Benproof]

Are you kidding?!!!

I just got my first pair after eschewing these for ages. These remind me of school children' shoes which we had to wear - ugly hole punched complicated shoes in first grade school which let in all the rain in British weather. Don't ask me why!

Personally I prefer the American Frye harness look. It looks out of place in the UK and hints at a tea part rebellion whilst remaining understated here.

 

[Capesofwrath]

Those brogues are made for walking, and that’s just what they do. Good brogues from a good maker are the most comfortable shoes known to man.

 

[Dirk Wainscotting]

I thought it was...but then... I wandered into this forum wearing my pyjamas and flip flops!

I was wondering somewhere in the back of my mind, why tweed and jeans might have made a cinematic impression on me and found:

Robert Redford wearing tweed and jeans: https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/...QkGDQJZmY84-vxaWYl88tKeT3F-vklwfdlm6EHbIVtXev

Cool guy. Even cooler films If he can, then so can you. Believe in yourself!

Interesting how different the styles can be, just by adding an accessory...a waistcoat..a beanie...a fake moustache lol

Of course, most of us are civil and gentlemanly enough not to go up to someone to tell them what we really think about their tweed and jeans look:

Although I still have yet to get a tweed jacket, I'm wondering about the blind view that it is a throw back to "student days" or even to one's youth, trying to make out like dad:

His dad must be as old as Einstein! In which case, an intergenerational look is then being defined by tweed and jeans as being "timeless" and classic.

The 2 button tweed jacket and jeans look seems to do rather well for men like bean poles:

Although this is a look I am consciously trying to shake off, so this is one way to do so - by tightening up with a 3 piece (jeans being the 3rd piece of course ):

I suppose the only challenge I have with the look of jeans and tweed ... is that I'm still wondering if it looks a little smarmy?
I mean...would you really feel comfortable being served by a waiter who looks like this:

...most likely, you'd be worried about what he put in your drink. But then again, maybe the model is just smirking with satisfaction at wearing a top notch Brunello Cucinelli tweed jacket. Suede shoes ...bleh. The tie is interesting although the Hackett shirt looks like one of those sickenly preppy shirts which need to be deconstructed to fit the look.

Someone asked about shoes. By far, the majority of the jeans and tweed wearers seem to go for brown chocolate or sand shoes to go with blue jeans.

Be interesting to see how jeans and tweed wearers actually wear theirs. Although if this thread gets derailed any more, it would be too risque' to post!

Cheers

I have to assume that you're being a satirist here, posting all those photos? An odd waistcoat (odd indeed), odd jacket and a pair of ratty jeans is no 'three-piece' worthy of the name. It's an ensemble, but then so was the outfit worn by Chaplin's 'little tramp'.
How old is that prematurely grey-haired fellow in the Japanese ad... 40, 45 maybe? It makes him born in the 1970s and at least into the 1990s before he'd likely wear a jacket by choice (for your reference Einstein would be about 120 years old by then). His father would possibly have been wearing jeans, though to decorate the house and fix the car.

What is a waistcoat for? It covered the waist (and the braces traditionally), it is an extra layer and makes a streamlined look taking the eye from head to trousers in a fairly unbroken line...unless you happen to have ladies' jeans on and your shirt is spilling out from between waistcoat and cowboy belt buckle. The jacket is always used to add a touch of formality, but then why undo it by having a shabby base for it? It's like serving caviare from a dog's bowl.

Slackening the dress code is not new - sleeveless jumpers replacing waistcoats from the 30s on; country clothes worn in urban settings etc - but this is fashion overpowering function at every turn.

 

[MisterCairo]

Yeah but what is the jacket and jeans look about?

I don't get it either, but I wouldn't fight anyone over it!

Now, the whole hipster look, don't get me started...

 

[kronos77]

I don't get it either, but I wouldn't fight anyone over it!

Now, the whole hipster look, don't get me started...

I think I get you Mister Cairo. I don't get how the jeans things has become an existential crisis. I have mixed feelings about it but they are now timeless. Maybe timelessly in bad taste, maybe timelessly fabulous. People will differ. The hipster look? That really is a crisis of civilization.

 

[MisterCairo]

I think I get you Mister Cairo. I don't get how the jeans things has become an existential crisis. I have mixed feelings about it but they are now timeless. Maybe timelessly in bad taste, maybe timelessly fabulous. People will differ. The hipster look? That really is a crisis of civilization.

I last had a pair of jeans in 2013, with no plans on getting more. Just not my style anymore, there are many ways of dressing casually.

For working outside, gardening, etc., which is where I tended to use jeans, I simply get purpose-made work clothes, like mechanics or farmers wear.

I wasn't a jeans kid, either. Corduroys were my thing (70s and 80s in my case!). I think I was 18 before I even had a pair of jeans.

A chacun son gout as they say!

 

[Dirk Wainscotting]

I'd like to point out that I am not anti-jeans. I wear them for dressing down.

I have a rather fashion-forward denim waistcoat that I use over corduroys or even jeans. It's a tad longer than older waistcoats and does a far better job than one of those too-short-for-jeans 'vintage' acquisitions which you see being worn atop low-rise jeans. The problem is, some influential guy wears that 'look' in a highly-posed photo and everyone gets confused thinking if they wear it they'll be just as cool and influential, instead of looking like they were too afraid to ask for the right sized waistcoat. Half a suit and jeans is just perverse.

Now, I can admit that in a casual situation, if the jeans are neat and the coat doesn't look like it was either nabbed from a suit or the gamekeeper's wardrobe - let's say a dark grey or brown herringbone perhaps - then it could work. Waistcoat with shirt bulging out? Forget it, it makes you look a fool.

Yet first, maybe stop and think and ask: 'Have I really thought about what I'm wearing on the lower half?' It may be that a man has put thought into the jacket, the shirt, the shoes and is really treating the jeans as the de facto standard garment he must dress around. This, I believe, is the issue. Jeans are comfortable, go-to garments and universally accepted which enables to infiltrate into places they don't belong...

 

[MisterCairo]

Actually it’s about sports coats and jeans. But it’s already digressed into suit jackets and jeans which is a horrible look and quite different. Not to mention all the talk about washed out ripped jeans and jackets which no one other than a demented would be celeb or other fashion victim would wear….

A lot of tilting at windmills going on I think.

I use coat and jacket interchangeably, a habit picked up from my father!

Speaking of sports coats:

http://www.artnet.com/artists/charl...as-linus-blanket-made-9cjf0hDBah9FCNWgZqY2AQ2

 

[Benproof]

Those brogues are made for walking, and that’s just what they do. Good brogues from a good maker are the most comfortable shoes known to man.

I've always found box calf really comfortable for walking but I've no idea where mine came from.

Men's dress shoes look really poncy and horrible to me so I don't know. Never owned a pair, but the marketing in GQ magazine is making me think I need to smarten up and stop wearing the same and only pair of worn out boots for everything. I got this pair:

I'm dreading when they come. What if I can't walk properly in them.

Anyway I think I've sorted the tweed coat so I will be able to harrass all of the Victor Meldrews on this thread with more pics

 

[Benproof]

Speaking of sports coats:

http://www.artnet.com/artists/charl...as-linus-blanket-made-9cjf0hDBah9FCNWgZqY2AQ2

 

[Benproof]

For working outside, gardening, etc., which is where I tended to use jeans, I simply get purpose-made work clothes, like mechanics or farmers wear.
..
A chacun son gout as they say!

Like this?

These are Nigel Cabourn ones. I like the look, but I rarely see it amongst the city stock market area
Now gout.....I'm sure there is a lot of that there. They eat too much red meat

 

[Benproof]

How old is that prematurely grey-haired fellow in the Japanese ad... 40, 45 maybe? It makes him born in the 1970s and at least into the 1990s before he'd likely wear a jacket by choice (for your reference Einstein would be about 120 years old by then). His father would possibly have been wearing jeans, though to decorate the house and fix the car.

No idea. He looked like 60 to me. But the tweed jacket and overcoat does make him *look* younger. So maybe he's actually older, but not more than 70, unless retirement ages have gone up...)

What is a waistcoat for? It covered the waist (and the braces traditionally), it is an extra layer and makes a streamlined look taking the eye from head to trousers in a fairly unbroken line...unless you happen to have ladies' jeans on and your shirt is spilling out from between waistcoat and cowboy belt buckle. The jacket is always used to add a touch of formality, but then why undo it by having a shabby base for it? It's like serving caviare from a dog's bowl.

No dogs dinners here. Just cat scratches! Is that how traditional victorian fishtail braces/suspenders based trousers were worn - streamlined with waistcoats? Edwardian ones were a little more subtle, however I find a problem with the streamlined look that you propose:

Doesn't your bum look too big in this?

I quite like the break between the waistcoat and the trousers for that reason. Maybe that is indeed a modern concession and breakdown of the smooth continuity of the Victorian style....pretty much as there was continuity with the British Emprie from England all the way to Australian. Gone is those colonial days, so maybe breaks and isolationism with non-matching waistcoats, tweed jackets and modern and vintage denims is the biz.

Slackening the dress code is not new - sleeveless jumpers replacing waistcoats from the 30s on; country clothes worn in urban settings etc - but this is fashion overpowering function at every turn.

Hmmm. I'm not sure what you mean with such grandiose narratives.

In aesthetic theory, form and function arguments aren't valid without specifics, unless you're posturing? In principle, form and function arguments are grand and sound impressive. However principle is generalisation, and generalisation has no role in reality where fashion is specific and individualistic.

For example: in reality, I live in the country; I live in the city. I have one foot in the country, one in the city. Work, life style choice allows me to have both. Many like me, live in the country, and work in the city of London. There is an interchange between country and city styles; much as there is, a dialogue and attempt (or laziness in waking up and coordinating the wardrobe) in fusing the two styles. This is not fashion: it is the lack of fashion, by being functionally pragmatic.

But anyway. I'm more of a visual person. Some examples would be nice to illustrate your principle

 

[Dirk Wainscotting]

Well... you thought a middle-aged man was 60-70 years old, so I'm now assuming you must be a whipper-snapper who has come of age with the men around you already part way down the road of dressing like overgrown teenagers?

I'm only 38 and I remember seeing it too. My own father favours jeans and he is a retired gentleman's tailor of the period when formal dressing was still in force. He actually wears a tweed jacket over jeans. He's incorrigible.

There's no 'grandiose narrative'. And I don't think you should be accusing me of that after 'theorising' that a waistcoat worn with low-rise trousers represents a 'breakdown of Victorian/Edwardian' style. This is reminding me a little of my last girlfriend (who was ten years younger than me) and behaved as though black and white films from the 1960s were from the 1860s. Completely divorced from anything within her own living memory, or within the last 20 years.

I'm baffled as to why you're posting on a forum that celebrates old coots and traditional clothing when you seem to favour dressing like Russell Brand.

 

[Benproof]

Hi Victor,

Who is Russell Brand?

I'm baffled too....the fact that I discovered how to get onto the internet still amazes me...and even more to be talking here without a tweed coat!

Umm..I don't know much about fashion. I studied fine art which has nothing in common with fashion except when it is corrupted.

 

[Dirk Wainscotting]

Yeah, who is he?

I suppose you think you're having a rise out of me? I'm sure your friends think you're a right comedian.

 

[Edward]

Are you kidding?!!!

I just got my first pair after eschewing these for ages. These remind me of school children' shoes which we had to wear - ugly hole punched complicated shoes in first grade school which let in all the rain in British weather. Don't ask me why

The broguing is designed to let water out when you get your feet wet. Let's 'em drain, unlike unbrogued shoes, where it stays in and your feet stay wet longer.

I'm with capes on this one: better a decent pair of brogues than most other footwear for comfort. I could never go back to gutties.

 

[Mathematicus]

Not to mention all the talk about washed out ripped jeans and jackets which no one other than a demented would be celeb or other fashion victim would wear….

You can mock me, if you want, but you won't change reality. Every day I see men in underground or around streets going to the office in skinny discoloured jeans, rubber shoes and a sports coat over. People think that just adding a jacket to any outfit will automatically make it a "formal attire" thing.

 

[Capesofwrath]

You can mock me, if you want, but you won't change reality. Every day I see men in underground or around streets going to the office in skinny discoloured jeans, rubber shoes and a sports coat over. People think that just adding a jacket to any outfit will automatically make it a "formal attire" thing.

Quite the opposite with me. I prefer to add a touch of informality to leaven an otherwise staid outfit. But I wear one of my leather jackets most often which are informal by their nature. I do not mock you either, but neither I or anyone else can change reality. Whatever that is...

 

[MisterCairo]

Gentlemen, we can respectfully disagree on sports coats with jeans, or other issues.

We can however could and should agree on one thing - never mention Russell Brand ever again...

 

[Dirk Wainscotting]

We can however could and should agree on one thing - never mention Russell Brand ever again...

That could prove difficult when his spirit is so strongly invoked by photographs like some of those above.