Suit jacket, sports coats, and blazers.

[kapay]

I didn't see a small questions thread so hopefully I don't get too much heat but I've been reading up on men's fashion for quite some time now but I still don't know the difference between a suit jacket, a sports coat, and a blazer. Augmented by the fact that many of my peers seem to use it interchangeably. Thanks for the help.

 

[nicoleSmith08]

Originally Posted by kapay

I didn't see a small questions thread so hopefully I don't get too much heat but I've been reading up on men's fashion for quite some time now but I still don't know the difference between a suit jacket, a sports coat, and a blazer. Augmented by the fact that many of my peers seem to use it interchangeably. Thanks for the help.

Blazer is a type of jacket, worn as smart casual clothing. It has casual cut, and sometimes has features such as patch pockets with no flaps and metal button.The blazer is worn with wide variety of other clothes, ranging from a shirt and tie, to an open-necked polo shirt. It is seen with trousers of all colors; Sports Coat is tailored coat for men. It is of a similar cut to a suit coat, but is designed to be worn on its own and not as part of a suit. It is used as casual wear and is the mainstream coat of choice in North America; and while Suit jackets are always worn with matching trousers. It typically has 3 or 4 buttons on each cuff, which are often purely decorative.

 

[ysc]

The difference has more to do with how each thing came into being, rather than any innate difference between them I think, Clearly a suit jacket is part of a suit, it is intended to be worn with matching trousers.

A sports coat was something originally used for sports such as shooting and so is traditionally made with more robust material such as tweed, and in a more robust style.

A Blazer was a specialised form of this associated with rowing and boating clubs, and I think was called a "Blazer" due to the bright colours that were used, I would think that the blue fabric gold buttons thing comes from navies using them as part of their uniforms.

Now a blazer nearly always means the blue jacket, and a sports coat means any other slightly more casual jacket that does not come with matching trousers.

In the UK we don't use the term sports coat too much, so people will just refer to them as jackets, coats or sometimes blazers.

 

[marc237]

A blazer is considered to be sports coat with metal buttons and a solid color. Typically navy, but certainly available in many other colors as well.

A sports coat, in addition to not having matching trousers, will often, but not always, be of a more casual fabric, have more casual design features (e.g., patch pockets, throat latch), and may have bolder patterns. Contrary to a previous post in this thread, the number of sleeve buttons is not a good determinate inasmuch as different manufacturers use different numbers of sleeve buttons on their garments. For example, some may use only 2 buttons on a sports coat sleeve.