A thrifted Jos. A. Banks sack jacket gets a new life masquerading as something more British. Click here for high-resolution version.
I feel guilty writing about trivialities, given the state of the country and the state of the world. But life must go on.
I have long known that I prefer the look of British tailoring to American. Maybe from watching all those BBC period pieces? The most beautiful suit I ever saw was in a tailor-shop window at Oxford. The fabric and cut almost took my American breath away.
But it was only fairly recently that I was able to put some names to certain styles of tailoring.
The standard American suit is the “sack suit.” It sounds derogatory, but it’s not meant that way. The cut goes back more than a hundred years (to Europe). But it was in America where it became the standard.
The sack suit is cut with straight sides that ignore the waist line (if any). British suits are cut to emphasize the shoulders (with padding!) and flatter the waist and V-shape of men whose waists are worthy of some flattery. If you look at a photo of even a portly English gentleman such as Winston Churchill, you’ll see that his jackets have some taper.
As I’ve mentioned here before, I got into the bad habit of collecting Harris tweed jackets after visiting Lewis and Harris in 2019. I bought my first Harris tweed jacket in a second-hand shop in Stornoway. I have about eight jackets that I like enough to have had altered. All but one came from the U.K., from eBay. They’re all suitable only for cool weather. I also have some Islay tweed and some Donegal tweed.
I buy a jacket only if I’m confident that the shoulder width is right for me. They can be altered easily enough to tighten the chest and waist (usually too loose for me in thrifted jackets) and adjust the sleeve length.
Recently on eBay I came across a jacket made of silk tweed. It’s a two-button, light-weight American jacket, from an old-reliable menswear company, Jos. A. Bank, made in Portugal. It was, of course, a sack-cut jacket. Madeline, a tailor trained in Hong Kong who had altered all my other jackets, had retired. So this time I went to a place at the mall. They actually did a good job, and they were less expensive than Madeline was. The young woman who pinned the jacket understood what I was looking for. The result was not exactly British-style tailoring, but it’s close enough. Once a sack jacket, always a sack jacket, I suppose.
⬆︎ Its previous life as a sack jacket is more visible from the front. Click here for high-resolution version.
⬆︎ Just up the road from me is a pasture in which two old horses live, Pete and Buddy. Just now there are millions of daisies in the pasture. Pete sneaks out at night when he can, and he often comes down to eat some of my clover. Click here for high-resolution version.
