The sports jacket is the corner stone of any man's wardrobe. Watch as Harry Rosen head buyer Shannon Stewart shows 4 ways for men to wear the quintessential blue jacket.
Transcript:
Hi my name is Shannon Stewart, I’m a buyer with Harry Rosen. The sports jacket is the corner stone of any man’s wardrobe. We recommend investing in a blue jacket, as it’s the most versatile and easy to coordinate. Today, we’re gonna show you how.
Business
In this coordination example, we’ve dressed our blue jacket for business. This is great for an occasion where a suit is not required, it’s not that formal of a situation but you still want to look professional and you want to look polished.
So let’s start first with the choice of trousers. A grey wool dress pant is the perfect complement to this jacket. It’s also going to be extremely versatile in your wardrobe to work back to other jackets as well.
In terms of the shirt and tie we’ve chosen, we’ve gone with a classic mini check shirt with a blue background and paired it back to a navy blue knit tie. The texture of the knit tie adds a little bit of interest to the whole outfit. In terms of the pocket square that we’ve chosen, we’ve kept it simple, just a clean, crisp white pocket square, in a square fold.
For our shoes and belt, we’ve gone with a really rich brown leather, and as always make sure that your shoes are well kept, polished and don’t detract from the rest of your outfit.
Business Casual
This next outfit takes our blue jacket in a more casual direction. We start first with the classic cotton chino in a light tan colour that coordinates perfectly back to the blue jacket.
Now the great thing about a blue jacket, it really provides a canvas to add any colour. So in this case, we’ve chosen a very vibrant orange that adds a lot of pop and personality to the jacket and the entire outfit. It's layered over top of a fine white and blue striped shirt that has a little bit of that orange in it as well.
The pocket square we’ve chosen, ties all of these colors together, and note that were keeping the colour of the outfit all in one area, we’re choosing colour in a careful way to make sure the whole outfit is really harmonious.
In terms of the belt, and the shoe that we’ve chosen, we’ve decided to use a woven belt, which really speaks to the casualness of the outfit, and a suede chukka boot in a light tan colour. Note that the belt and shoes don’t have to match, they just have to complement one another.
Weekend
This look is the most casual of our coordinations. Without the jacket, it’s just a t-shirt and jeans. With the jacket, it takes your whole outfit to a new level, it makes sure that you’re appropriately dressed for any occasion, and it just gives you a much more polished and sophisticated look.
We’ve taken our blue jacket, paired it back to a t-shirt and a pair of lightly washed jeans and a really clean, fresh, white sneaker, for a perfect weekend look.
Relaxed
A question we’re often asked is, “How do I wear a coloured pant without looking like a clown?” Well the answer is to let the pants speak for itself and keep the rest of the outfit neutral.
So in this case, we’ve taken our blue jacket and that anchors the look for the coloured pant which adds a little life and personality to the outfit. We’ve also taken another wardrobe staple, which is a blue chambray shirt, so it keeps the top of the outfit really clean, and elegant, and just adds in a little bit of color in the trouser.
The accessories we’ve chosen are also very sophisticated. We’ve chosen a white pocket square, with a little bit of a trim of blue. And for the belt and shoe, we’ve gone with a very rich dark chocolate brown suede in the belt and also the double monkstrap shoe.
The overall look is elegant, and sophisticated, and not at all clownish.
