When you order a lounge suit, whether for work or play, or even for a wedding, it’s a relaxing thought that before too long you’ll order another one. Of course you want to get all the details right, but ultimately you can always refine the specification next time around. So it’s relevant that while it seems justifiable to own two dinner jackets, a light-weight one for the summer and a heavy-weight one for the winter, most of us only own one at a time, and rarely replace them.
And that is why it pays to nail the details, and resist the temptation of picking too widely from the smorgasbord of available and acceptable options. It’s common knowledge, for instance, that a dinner jacket shouldn’t have pocket flaps, turn-ups or vents, in pursuit of the cleanest possible lines. However, this tells us nothing about the wisdom of going for a shawl collar, or a double-breasted jacket, turn-back cuffs, notch lapels, midnight-blue cloth or even horn buttons, all of which are perfectly correct. In reality there are as many different possible versions as there are clients to bespeak them.
But instead of rehearsing all the pros and cons, and the associations and connotations, connected with the myriad different styles here’s the executive summary for the perfect dinner jacket: black cloth, a single breasted one-button jacket in a traditional shape, with deep, peaked lapels. The result is simple, elegant, crisp, correct and timeless. As Chris says, “There are dinner jackets, and dinner jackets. This is the latter.”
