Case study: how to shop for a versatile fall sportcoat

Each fall I tend to talk a lot about fall sportcoats. It's obviously a timely topic, but it's honestly one of my favorites. Few garments are as practical as a fall sport jacket or as easy to dress down with denim.

While I've written a comprehensive guide on the subject (you can read it here on the BE blog), I wanted to take a different approach for LinkedIn. In this article, I'm going to walk you through the decision process for how I designed my own jacket for this season.

My needs in a fall sportcoat

Just like you, I need a fall jacket for the office that will be dressy, but not overly so. I want something that I can wear with denim, both during the day and in the evenings.

Regarding the weight of the fabric, it can be a little heftier than a lightweight summer cloth. If you have worked with me in the office, you'll know that I like to remind my clients that a sport jacket is just that, a jacket. When the wind picks up, you can pop the collar, maybe throw on a scarf, and that will probably be enough for most seasonal fall days. Therefore, I need a cloth that will be just a little heavier to keep the wind at bay.

Fabric selection

The choice of cloth is the most important decision when buying any custom garment, or even shopping in a store, for that matter.

Sport coats, as you might know, tend to have a pattern whereas a blazer will not. That could mean a plaid, windowpane (large squares), or something like a houndstooth.

Color-wise, the usual fall colors come into view. Shades of brown, maroon, rust orange, etc.

Looking through the swatch books I had available, here were a couple of my candidate cloths:

Any one of these cloths would make for a great looking jacket.

Here's how I narrowed it down.

First, I recognized that I already owned a maroon/red jacket. Also, that I had a handful of blue shades in my closet already. If I were to wear this jacket with denim, blue on blue tends to be pretty blended, after all.

The grey cloth was tempting, but I felt like I wanted at least a little bit of color this year.

This left the brown and blue check cloth. It wasn't quite a plaid, which I liked and didn't like. On the one hand, I had felt like I would definitely end up with a plaid coat, because what says fall more than plaid?! But on the other, I really liked that this was a unique cloth, one that would certainly stand out in any office I were to visit (for a delivery, client visit, etc).

The fact that this brown/blue check cloth had a touch of cashmere in it for softness, pushed me over the edge. :)

The lining

Personally, I tend to choose a jacket lining on intuition. When I see one that I really like, that's usually the one for me. I don't keep looking for something better. But for this coat, I got myself into trouble because I had a cowboy themed lining in mind from the beginning.

But when paired up with the cloth that I had in mind, it didn't seem like a good match. It was just too "busy looking."

I usually advise my clients to choose a "quieter" lining when the suit or jacket cloth is heavily patterned or bold. And vice versa when the cloth is a solid or near solid.

Since my cloth was a small check pattern with browns and blues, the cowboy lining was just a little too much.

Instead, I found this one:

Clearly, this lining was a better match with the colors.

Now it was time to make some decisions on the jacket style.

Jacket styling

I chose a notched lapel and a two-button front for versatility. A peaked lapel would just be a little too dressy for this textural, and therefore casual jacket. Also, a one-button front just felt too sophisticated for the fabric.

Regarding the pockets, I did something I don't normally do, and chose to have flaps on the pockets. This is a more traditional look, but again, since the fabric was so textured looking, I wanted to reinforce that by having a little something on the pockets.

Details

For the felt undercollar, I matched the navy blue in the fabric. Same for the last buttonhole on the jacket sleeve. Although what I learned was that because this fabric had so much personality to it, the navy buttonhole I added in, although contrast in nature, certainly doesn't show up as much as I would have liked.

You will also notice that the buttons are quite noticeable. Typically, suit or sportcoat buttons are matched to the fabric, but now and again I think that it's fun to have some contrast. Given that there is still some tortoise shell brown going on, they are a great match.

And of course, I had some fun with my monogram: wabi-sabi.

Your turn

I hope this article helped to shed some light on the process of shopping for a fall sportcoat. The whole idea is to buy something that's appropriate for the office and satisfies your needs, but also something that will keep the cool chill of fall out!

About me: I founded Bespoke Edge with my father and brother in 2012. Follow me here on LinkedIn for my articles on building a Brand, Marketing, and probably a cocktail recipe now and again.