A New Sportcoat
This jacket just arrived Thursday in the mail. It’s a made-to-order jacket from Spier & Mackay, which I am a fan of for their inexpensive but well designed goods. My favorite trouser cut is from them, for instance, and they’ve been refining a fantastic off-the-rack tailoring cut that’s an homage to the Neapolitan aesthetic. It’s made in China, so you need to be okay with that, but if you are, the product is a great price for a very cool style.
Anyway, as Rick (the owner of Spier & Mackay) was developing the Neapolitan cut, he sent me sample jackets on loan to give him feedback. I looked at a brown VBC fabric suit in season 1, a heavy tweed gun club sport coat in season 2, and finally a linen-silk-wool blend spring gun club for season 3. As thanks to me for my input, he generously gifted me a made-to-order jacket, and this is the result. (As a blogger I have a policy about free stuff, which you can find here. In a nutshell: I accept gifts, but never in exchange for positive coverage, and generally only from brands I already am a happy customer of. And I don’t self-censor negative or un-flattering opinions of mine for anybody who gives me stuff—or for anybody, for that matter).
The fabric is a wool-linen-silk-polyamide summer blend from Gladston, Ltd., from their Portofino collection. It’s a lightweight, textured fabric that’s perfect for summer. Time will tell how it wrinkles, moves and stretches with wear. But so far I love it. I chose this fabric to help bring symmetry to my closet. For winter tailoring, I have a navy faux-tweed blazer; a brown donegal jacket; a cream, brown and olive gun club with orange overcheck jacket; and an emerald green subtle herringbone jacket. For summer tailoring, I had counterparts for everything but the emerald green. I thought of all the other colors and types of fabrics I might like to have for summer, and green made most sense to me (more than gray or something like a gun club pattern). This fabric stood out to me because I like cloths with a deco (overcheck), especially when layered on top of a prince of wales or similar pattern. And the shade of green here hit a nice balance—not too hunter green, not olive, not grass green, not “Masters” green.
The measurements of the jacket weren’t up for much in terms of tweaks—it was made to order, not made to measure. So I picked the stock slim fit pattern in the Neapolitan cut in the same size I normally take. Their slim fit pattern primarily distinguishes itself from their “contemporary” fit by having a slightly higher armhole, a slimmer waist and narrower hips. I could have customized lapel shapes and buttoning heights, but chose not to mess with that as their stock Neapolitan details are pretty good with me—though he did allow me to lengthen the jacket by 1cm, which was an excellent decision.
The fit, as you can see, is very good straight out of the box. The shoulders are the only part that I would put energy into altering if I were doing made to measure. I’d probably widen them a touch, and possibly add some volume to the sleeve cap. Those two changes plus raising the armhole slightly would probably give me a cleaner shoulder that passes the “sass test” a little better, the funny name someone coined for the way I test whether a jacket’s shoulders fit me well (placing my hand on my hip and seeing if it lays flat or buckles on the shoulder line). Though, as you can see below, it’s pretty good as-is.
The jacket is buggy lined (only in the shoulders and sleeves). It is a 3-roll-2 closure. Patch hip pockets (which are a bit small to my eyes; another thing I’d tweak on future jackets) with a barchetta (curved) chest pocket. Shirt sleeve shoulder construction (spalla camicia) with a moderate amount of grinze (small pleats for a waterfall shoulder effect). The shoulder construction is very reminiscent of Ring Jacket’s to me, in fact. It’s very good. Honestly, this jacket resembles a Ring Jacket to me more than a Spier and Mackay.
It’s half-canvas, meaning it’s got a canvas in the chest that’s sewn in by machine (not fused, which involves glue); below that, there is no canvas, shaving off some bulk and upping the breathability. And a final detail: a “Milanese” buttonhole. It’s a detail some guys go crazy over. I don’t so much. It’s nice, but since it was sewn by someone not even remotely close to Milan, it gives me less pleasure than if it were on a jacket with the real provenance. But, it was a freebie on top of a freebie, so I went for it. It looks great, that’s for sure.
Overall, it’s a wonderful jacket. I’m not certain what the retail price would be had I ordered it—I’d guess somewhere in the $500-600 range. I’d say it’s worth that. I will post some more in-depth thoughts in a future post. But suffice it to say, for now, I’m very pleased to have a new summer jacket to wear, and I’m very happy to have it be a Spier and Mackay Neapolitan.
