Clothing Definitions — definitions of garments and clothing terms from Apparel Search
A sportcoat, also called a sports coat or sports jacket, is a tailored coat similar in cut to a suit coat, but less restrictive, originally made of a sturdy fabric for hunting and other outdoor sports. It is tailored like a suit jacket but is not part of a matching suit: it is worn with trousers that do not match it, which is what makes it the flexible middle garment of classic menswear, formal enough for most social and business-casual settings and informal enough for the country origins it came from.
A sportcoat (also called a sports coat or sports jacket) is a tailored coat, similar in cut to a suit coat, but less restrictive, originally of a sturdy fabric for hunting and other outdoor sports.
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| The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sports_jacket ). 1/6/06 |
The sportcoat's history explains its details. Country tailoring for shooting, hunting and riding needed cloth that resisted weather and wear, freedom through the shoulders for movement, and pockets that actually carried things. Tweed and other sturdy wools, patch pockets, leather buttons and vents all come from that working brief. When the coat moved into town wear, the construction softened: less padding, a lighter canvas, a cut that sits easier than a suit coat, but the patterned, textured cloth remained its signature, precisely because it signals that the coat is not half of a suit.
That signal is practical. A plain suit coat worn with odd trousers reads as a broken suit; a checked or tweed sportcoat reads as an outfit chosen that way. The sportcoat therefore pairs naturally with flannels, cords, chinos and denim in a way a suit coat does not, and it bridges the gap between a full suit and a sweater or casual jacket.
Fit follows tailoring rules: shoulders clean, collar hugging the neck, sleeves showing a little shirt cuff, and the body long enough to cover the seat. Single-breasted styles dominate, though double-breasted sportcoats exist, and the relations on the tailored-coat family tree, the blazer, the overcoat, the trench coat, the safari jacket and the frock coat, each solve a different problem of weather, formality or occasion. A first sportcoat in a mid-tone textured wool covers the widest range, from business-casual offices to social evenings, which is why the garment has outlived the field sports it was named for.
A sportcoat is similar in cut to a suit coat but less restrictive, and it is not made to match a pair of trousers. Suit coats are cut from the same cloth as their trousers as one outfit; a sportcoat is a separate, designed to pair with contrasting trousers.
Because it began as a sturdy tailored coat for hunting and other outdoor sports. The sturdy sporting fabrics and easier cut carried over when the coat moved from the field into everyday wear, and the name stayed with it.
No. The blazer is a related but distinct tailored coat, traditionally in a solid colour, often navy, with its own sporting history in rowing and club wear. A sportcoat is the broader category of separate tailored coat, very often in patterned or textured cloth such as tweed or checks.