Lots of confusion over what's the difference between a sport coat...
derek guy@dieworkwear
91 views
Mar 09, 2024
~4 min read
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Lots of confusion over what's the difference between a sport coat and a blazer. I'll explain the difference, why the blazer became known as blazer, and why this is not just an American thing. š§µ
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Let's first review some basics.
1. A suit is a garment where the jacket and pants are cut from the same cloth.
2. A sport coat is a jacket meant to be worn with trousers cut from a different cloth.
3. A blazer is sport coat with metal buttons.
1. A suit is a garment where the jacket and pants are cut from the same cloth.
2. A sport coat is a jacket meant to be worn with trousers cut from a different cloth.
3. A blazer is sport coat with metal buttons.
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How did the blazer become known as a blazer? There are two stories.
The first starts in 1837, when the Commander of the HMS Blazer, a frigate in the British Royal Navy, was told that young Queen Victoria was coming to inspect his ship.
The first starts in 1837, when the Commander of the HMS Blazer, a frigate in the British Royal Navy, was told that young Queen Victoria was coming to inspect his ship.
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The Commander didn't feel his crew was presentable but also didn't have time to order new uniforms. So he simply had people sew brass Royal Navy buttons onto the crew's short naval jackets. Hence, we get the most common iteration of a blazer, which looks like this:
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The other story involves The Lady Margaret Boat Club, the rowing club of St. Johns College, whose members were said to "set the water ablaze." In the 1852 edition of the Cambridge University Almanac & Register, you'll find the word blazer refers to the club's red boating jackets
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By the 1860s, other rowing clubsāsuch as the ones at Oxford and Durhamāstarted to call their jackets "blazers." That's how the word blazer came to refer to these sporting jackets you see below.
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These jackets may or may not feature metal buttons. They are mostly distinguished by their bright colors, contrasting trims, and bold stripes. Think of them as sports uniforms.
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OK, let's talk about sport coats. A sport coat is simply a tailored jacket that is designed to be worn with trousers cut from a different cloth.
A blazer is a type of sport coat; but not all sport coats are blazers. Just like a penguin is a bird, but not all birds are penguins
A blazer is a type of sport coat; but not all sport coats are blazers. Just like a penguin is a bird, but not all birds are penguins
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A sport coat can be made from anything: linen, cotton, tweed, checked worsted wools, wool-silk-blends, raw silk, madras, etc. The list is endless.
Back in the day, British men of a certain social class would sometimes wear tweed sport coats while sporting in the countryside.
Back in the day, British men of a certain social class would sometimes wear tweed sport coats while sporting in the countryside.
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Some of these clothes carried patterns connected to various estates. Some of you may have heard of the term "glen check," one of the most common business suit patterns. That was designed in 1840 for the Glenurquhart Estate (a sporting estate in Scotland).
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Broadly speaking, most sport coats don't carry any such connotation. They are just jackets you wear with trousers cut from a different cloth. Hence, we get the most important distinguishing mark between a sport coat and a blazer: a blazer connotes belonging to some organization
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With those crazy striped boating blazers, they say you belong to a rowing club. With brass button blazers, the buttons typically carry some kind of insignia. Here, we see blazer buttons from two countries: Ben Silver (US) and Benson & Clegg (UK). Not just an American thing!
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In the US, the Waterbury Button Company in Cheshire, Connecticut, is the nation's largest blazer button manufacturer. They make blazer buttons for the military, universities, clubs, business organizations, trade organizations, etc.
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Here is almost everything you need to know about blazers in an easy Venn diagram. You can see here how the blazer is connected to different organizations. But the unifying detail is that these jackets have metal buttons.
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Since language is not standardized, people have used the term blazer in different ways. My impression is that marketing material for womenswear often uses the term blazer in spaces where I would use sport coat. Some British schoolboy blazers may not have metal buttons.
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But if you go into a traditional tailoring shop and ask for a blazer, you will get a navy jacket with metal buttons. If you ask for a boating blazer, the tailor will pull out a book full of crazy fabrics.
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There's no law against using the word blazer to describe a sport coat. However, in the most traditional sense, this is how the terms were used because they were connected to various social practices.
