Contorted or vastly elevated and enriched sport coats = is the

[babygreenspots]

morphed sport coat the future of dressing for younger men?

This could offer more ventilation for the armpits, but I suppose a waistcoat would be even better at that.

I understand all the opposition, but for the average young fellow, perhaps the length and bulkiness of most traditional sport coats that can be had off the rack can be something of a turn-off.

 

[apropos]

All of them, save maybe the last one:

 

[ysc]

That pink short sleeved thing looks deeply deeply stupid to me.

 

[apropos]

Originally Posted by youngscientist

That pink short sleeved thing looks deeply deeply stupid to me.
As does his 'oh look at me I'm sooooo mysterious and charming, thus I sooooo totally get away with this' expression.

You don't. You still look like an idiot.

 

[benjamin831]

They're all hideous, except for the first one.

What I hate about people trying spice up a sportcoat is that they most, if not all, end up looking like tools. The reason being that a sportscoat is, with the right fabrics and fixtures, more than enough to make someone look perfect. To spice up a sportscoat requires tremendous qualification in the departments of taste and style, otherwise it is easy to overkill the look and end up looking like the people in your pictures. Youth and freshness can be conveyed by the cut, style, and fabrics alone, and messing with the essentials would be a dangerous proposition.

 

[ysc]

Yeah, that's what is made me think of, a women's blouse.
Slightly of topic but women's clothing with shorter than normal sleeves, what is the point of a rain coat with 3/4 length sleeves?
Changing sleeve lengths on jackets or coats as a fashion statement = stupid. Sleeves are arm length, because that's how long your arm is.

 

[babygreenspots]

But sometimes the average guy just ends up looking dowdy when he wears a standard navy blazer or tweed coat. Alternatively, showing up in a fashionable circle wearing a traditional sport coat can prompt comparisons to Sherlock Holmes.

 

[rach2jlc]

I've seen the guy in the last two pics several times (maybe on the Sartorialist?) and, in any case, he seems too smug and smarmy for me, as apropos mentions.

He never looks effortless, but like he's always trying REALLLY hard. The whole effect is just rather douchey, in my opinion.

 

[ysc]

Originally Posted by babygreenspots

But sometimes the average guy just ends up looking dowdy when he wears a standard navy blazer or tweed coat. Alternatively, showing up in a fashionable circle wearing a traditional sport coat can prompt comparisons to Sherlock Holmes.

I see what you are saying, but as far as I can tell to fit in with "street" type fashionable people you can get away with wearing a standard jacket, so long as you offset it with a pair of converses.

"He is wearing a suit, what an evil corporate stooge so dull and old fashioned, oh no wait he is wearing converse shoes, so that subverts it and makes it ok"
Converse do look fairly good for trainers but they are just a pair of trainers manufactured (I think) by Nike, so how does this work?

I can understand that people want a "cooler" jacket, and a lot of the people in your blog do look pretty cool, but that pink one just looks marsupialed no matter what look you are going for. You can have a jacket cut in a very fashion forward way and with interesting/different materials, you shouldn't have to resort to gimmicks.

 

[babygreenspots]

When did converses gain the ability to make any outfit "cool"? Has it always been this way? As far as I can tell, it is pretty much internationally accepted. Odd, no? Do they still have the ability to bestow cool in the really freezing parts of the US (I think basically Brooklyn and parts of the Lower East Side) and London?

Anyway, I heard that Saddam Hussein's son Odai, I believe, had aspirations to be a fashion designer. He often walked into military banquets with his own creations, one of the most famous of which was a blazer jacket with a single sleeve.

 

[Nicola]

The short sleeved one looks like a girls jacket. I've got vague memories of my mother having one.

But the rest? Look fairly mainstream.

If you think they look short they've been showing the early Bond movies on TV lately. I bet many of the jackets in those movies aren't much/any longer. Okay I don't like the one with the scarf that looks like a skirt.

 

[maomao1980]

Babygreenspots, you know I found most of the people you photographed in Beijing to be horribly dressed and just silly. They are a classic case of dressing a certain way without understanding the context of the clothe, or possibly their own ideals. But I do know it is a city only in its infancy when it comes expressing oneself through clothing (or any means!), and I can at least appreciate the fact that they seem to care about how they look, thus I digress...

p.s. - I do enjoy your blog as I am a native of Beijing.