JACKET
JACKET
HISTORY OF THE JACKET
Perhaps not everyone knows that the Jacket is one of our oldest garments.
We aren’t of course talking about the Jacket as it is known today, but of its "ancestor," which seems having been used indiscriminately by both men and women.
“Remains” of ancient Jackets seem having been found in women’s sarcophagi dating back to the Bronze Age.
The term Jacket is a derivative of Jacques, a very common name in France among peasants (in Italian, Giacomo). The term dates back to the 1600, in its original meaning of overcoat.
The Jacket was born in France with the "revolt of the peasants" during the Hundred Years War, as the overcoat used for protection against weapons’ attacks.
The evolution of the basic elements occurred in Great Britain during the eighteenth century.
During the nineteenth century, the Jacket developed into the Jacket of today, as today’s menswear: pants, shirt, tie, and vest.
In the last two hundred years, then, the Jacket and other garments developed according to styles that followed the same underlying principles.
Hence the story of the tailored and elaborate Jacket. To better understand it, we will divide it into several chapters.
THE TAILOR’S SHOP
A tailor’s shop is a workroom where clothes are made. A tailor or seamstress work in the shop, helped by assistants who were called piccinine. Custom-made garments are made in the tailor’s shop. The tailor also makes alterations to off-the-rack garments.
Before the Prèt a porter, tailor’s shops were widespread. Later, due to the increasing price of workmanship and the post-war, off-the-rack garment competition, tailor’s shops gradually decreased. Today the term tailor’s shop is linked to high-fashion couture.
THE TAILOR
The tailor is a craftsman who manufactures men’s and women’s clothing.
To carry out this type of craft properly and to the best of one’s ability, a long training is needed. This training is acquired primarily on the field, starting as an apprentice in a shop (tailor’s shop).
To become a good tailor, in addition to training, one must possess certain skills. These skills, even if they can be cultivated and developed, must be inborn to who wants to reach a high level of professional success.
• Sensitivity and good taste;
• Manual dexterity;
• Inventiveness and attention to changing tastes and fashions;
• Curiosity and openness to innovation, including the technical field;
• Care and concern for the customer.
The period after the Second World War saw the emergence of numerous famous tailors who were later referred to as designers.
They created and made popular new styles and new systems of bringing high couture to the forefront in a world heading ever more in the direction of mass-produced garments.
In more recent times, the spread of mass-produced clothes and informal clothes has made this trade a little more exclusive, reserving it for the finest haute couture garments (mostly women) and high-end fashion houses for men.
In small towns and in areas of central and southern Italy, small tailor’s shops are still existing, mainly run by one or two owners and some assistants; these shops are often specialized in creation of clothes for special occasions (weddings, christenings, other events) and, often, repairs or alterations of off-the-rack clothes.
MEN’S JACKET
The influence of Italian school in men’s jackets styles
Perhaps not everyone knows that the tradition of Italian tailoring is one of the oldest in Europe, especially Southern Europe, with Naples and Palermo ahead of everyone else, despite the fact that two hundred years ago, during the time of Admiral Nelson, there was an obvious Anglo-Saxon influence. The Neapolitan shoulder is softly shaped. After World War II, the shoulders became squarer, pagoda shoulders, creating a certain Italian style. It was a close-fitting shape, with emphasis on the waistline.
The silhouette has been changing since the eighties, into a more loose and comfortable "fold". Since the seventies, our designers have launched jackets with back splits, which did not exist before.
This became very popular, truly a distinguishing trait.
It is worth mentioning that Italian manufacturers took ongoing special care in the research and creation of new patterns.
The influence of the English School in men’s jackets styles
Traditional English tailoring has been the most imitated in the world for quite a long time.
In general, the coat clings loosely to the body, without being too tight; the line is accentuated at the waist, while the armhole tends to be snug and the shoulder, moderately padded.
This type of jacket has often back slits.
It is a fact that the English school excels in attention to detail, the severity of the cut and the linearity of movements.
Men’s jackets essential traits
First and foremost, it is important to keep in mind the critical areas of the jacket, which are shoulders, chest, armhole and neck.
· Shoulders
The shoulders should be large enough to allow the outer sleeves to fall freely, avoiding unsightly bulges caused by the presence of muscles in the arms.
· Chest
The chest should be wide enough, to allow easy buttoning, and remain comfortable even when seated. If the jacket has three buttons, it must be buttoned with the centre button. If it has two buttons, the higher button should be used. The lowest button should never be used.
· Drop
Another detail to keep in mind is the drop, which is the ratio between the width of the chest and that of the waist. The following are appropriate relationships, for instance, for a size fifty; drop 8 for those with a narrow waist in relation to the chest, 6 for a normal ratio, and 4 for those with a large waist or a large protruding belly. Unfortunately, for commercial reasons, the most widespread drop is 6, the median.
· Armhole
The armhole is another sensitive area. It must be cut so that the bottom fits the arm pit snugly, without being tight. If it’s too deep, it’s an imperfection. After you try on an off-the-racket jacket, is advisable not to purchase it, if there are any doubts about the functionality of the armholes.
· Neck
The first detail to note about the neck of the jacket is that it must cling well in the back, to the neck of the shirt without moving even the arms are moved or raised. Another detail: when the neck is too short, it causes the front flaps of the jackets to lift. On the contrary, a neck which is too long will make the front flaps of the jacket uneven.
The most common types of jackets
• Single-breasted with one button (only smoking)
• Single-breasted with two buttons (fasten only the top button)
• Single-breasted with three buttons (fasten only the top button, or the two top ones)
• Double-breasted with four buttons, 2 +2 (fasten only the bottom button)
• Double breasted six buttons, 3 +3 (fasten the middle, bottom or both buttons)
• Blazers (usually with three or four buttons, back slits and patch pockets)
• Safari jackets (with four patch-gusset pockets and a belt at the waist)
• Smoking jackets; the classic one is velvet with satin lapels (may have buttons or tie with a belt).
THE TAIL COAT
The Tail Coat emerged in the late eighteenth century in England as comfortable peasant attire.
Thus, it was made with coloured wool cloth, or leather, short in front and with two tails in the back, and with a different coloured vest. Its beginning traits were a high neck, and then very high lapels divided into two. This fashion continued throughout the Napoleonic era, until about 1822. The coat was perfected in the early nineteenth century by Lord Brummel, Founder of the Dandy, who preferred it blue, double breasted, complete with beige trousers, an always visible vest, and a high-necked white shirt, wrapped by a huge tie. Once the Restoration started, the coat, like all men's clothes of the nineteenth century, remained dark, with a narrowing waistline, with the help of hidden bands. Men in a tail coat looked like an hourglass. Meanwhile, the tails were getting considerably shorter. The tail coat remained an every-day garment until mid-century, and then slowly it became a formal garment, completely black.
The only highlight was the shirt that had to be completely white, and whose neck, now smaller, was bound by a narrow black tie. For some elegant occasions only, diplomats accented the front with embroidery of spun gold foliage.
Thanks to numerous fashion innovations in the cut, the tail coat began clinging to the male figure.
A tenacious innovator of men's fashion, Edward VIII of Wales, son of Queen Victoria, tried to abolish the double-breasted tail coat, opting to leave it open, perhaps to camouflage its incipient corpulence.
In the twentieth century the tail coat became exclusively evening wear, outclassed during the century by garments such as the Tight and the Smoking.
The Second World War introduced the most comfortable and informal American clothes to Europe and the tail coat became a court uniform or indispensable garment for orchestra conductors.
THE DINNER JACKET (SMOKING)
The term "smoking" is derived from 'English smoking jacket (“smoking jacket").
Originally, it was indeed a garment that was worn by men in smoking rooms, with the aim of preventing men’s clothes from smelling like tobacco. Up to the 1880 the only accepted men's formal evening wear was the tail coat with swallowtails and white bow tie.
Some believe that the dinner jacket (smoking) was born in London in 1865 by the work of the Henry Poole & Co., Tailor Shop. Poole was believed to have created a "short smoking jacket" for the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII), cutting the swallowtails of a tail coat.
In the United States it first appeared in October 1886, the work of dandy Griswold Lorillard to the Tuxedo Club in New Jersey.
The club gave its name to the garment, which overseas is called tuxedo (sometimes tux for short).
In the United Kingdom the "smoking" is today known as dinner jacket (“giacca da sera"), while in Italy, during the fascist era, the term was coined as "giacchetta da sera” (evening jacket).
THE MORNING DRESS (TIGHT)
The morning dress is a very elegant and quite formal men’s garment.
It is the classic wedding garment, as long as the ceremony is before 6:00 pm.
Etiquette requires that the groom wears a morning dress only if the bride wears a white gown with a veil and a long train; in addition, if worn by the groom, the male relatives of the bridegroom and bride must also wear a morning dress.
Moreover, the morning dress is required to enter the Ascot Royal Enclosure Race Course.
KING GIORGIO,
Giorgio Armani, born July 11, 1934 in Piacenza, is one of the most famous designers in the world.
Production ranges from Armani suits of all kinds, but the jacket is his defining trait.
Armani revolutionizes the design: he removes internal supports (pads and inner linings), as the buttons are moved and the traditional proportions changed: this is how the unstructured jackets are born, the true emblem of his style.
The jacket becomes the protagonist of the male-cut trouser suit that Armani designs for women who are climbing the corporate ladder.
Inspired by black and white movies, and the atmosphere of America of the twenties and thirties, he chooses crisp, clean-cut garments, in cool colours tones: beige, gray and grege, a new tone between gray and earthy sand, even if the Armani black is what sets his production apart.
