Jackets – shoulder your responsibility, gents
DO YOU ever feel, gentlemen, that you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders?
Have you felt, lately, that part of this burden has do with concerns related to the shoulders of your suits? It is, after all, the most important part of the garment. When it fits badly, people judge you silently – unless you’re Sean Spicer, in which case they judge you at ear-piercing volume.
From designer boutiques to the mall, many mannequins are currently clothed in suit jackets, sports coats, and blazers with soft shoulders. These suits have little to no padding in the shoulders, and they’re being made in fabrics fit for summer, sometimes with very little structure. At the unspeakable extreme, when these jackets lack even partial canvassing, they look like glorified cardigans. Such garments have a place, and it’s in California.
But it’s possible not to lose your composure completely in this arena. When its colour is dark, its pattern traditional, or its front double-breasted, a softshouldered jacket can present a relaxed formality appropriate to a stylish evening in the city. When a jacket exhibits all three of these qualities at once, it is smart enough to be worn anywhere. It might even seem more powerful than a broad-padded power suit on account of its confident unstuffiness.
While that dressy approach to a soft-shouldered jacket endures as a classic, the more prominent look of the new season (at least, the more heavily promoted) is single-breasted, light in colour and weight, and sometimes a bit coarse or slubby in texture. In such a context, this a businesscasual shoulder, an outdoorsummer-wedding kind of shoulder, an invariably-goes-wellwith-jeans shoulder. Its traditions include the insouciance of Italian playboys and the nonchalance of American preppies.
Some refer to the soft look as the “natural shoulder.” Speaking of nature: this kind of shoulder looks best on those genetically blessed with certain proportions. If you feel your head’s too large for your shoulders, you want nothing to do with these jackets. If your shoulders are stooped, forget about it. If you pull a softshouldered jacket off the rack and it doesn’t fit your shoulders perfectly, then put the jacket back on the rack post-haste.
The rule is so crucially important as to warrant repetition: don’t buy a jacket unless the shoulders fit well. And remember that despite rumours of the power suit’s resurgence, no matter the talk of an ‘80s revival, the oversized padded shoulders are not to be taken very seriously. These are a joke, my businesssuited brethen, and the designers are not necessarily laughing with you. – Bloomberg