A blazer is a type of jacket, often double-breasted, and sometimes single-breasted, worn as smart casual clothing. The term blazer is also sometimes used as a synonym for boating jacket or sports jacket, though in fact it is neither. A blazer resembles a suit jacket, except that it has a more casual cut, and features as patch pockets with no flaps and metal buttons. A blazer's cloth is usually durable, because it was designed as a sporting jacket. They often form part of the uniform of bodies such as airlines, schools, and yachting or rowing clubs.
The blazer began as a jacket worn in boat clubs, for rowing, and was brightly coloured, often striped, with contrasting piping, and single breasted; it was essentially an early sports jacket. At that time, the double breasted, navy blue jacket was known as a reefer jacket. Eventually, as the original blazer became less common, the term come to be applied to the naval version, which gained its modern metal buttons. It is still sometimes called the reefer jacket, and is worn in its original form by some yachting clubs.[1]
Wearing a blazer
The blazer is worn with wide variety of other clothes, ranging from a shirt and tie, to an open-necked polo shirt. It is seen with trousers of all colours, from the classic grey flannel, to white cotton, and brown or beige chinos.
The blazer is now very common in some parts of the world, such as in America, where it forms a major part of business casual wear, and it seen as appropriate for nearly all situations in some part of America.
It is worn as part of school uniform by many schools across the Commonwealth, and in a wide range of colours is still daily wear for most pupils in Britain and Australia. These are blazers in the traditional sense, single breasted often of bright colours or with piping. This style is also worn by some boat clubs, such as those in Cambridge or Oxford, with the piped version only on special occasions such as a boat club dinner. In this case, the piping is in college colours, and college buttons are worn. This traditional style can be seen in many films set in around the Edwardian era, such as Chariots of Fire and Kind Hearts and Coronets.
In the Commonwealth, many regimental associations (veterans' organisations) wear 'regimental blazers' which consist of a blazer with a large representation of the regiment's badge on the breast pocket, usually in the form of a wire badge, and sometimes regimental blazer buttons. In the British army officers do not normally wear badges on their blazers (or boating jackets).[2] Any two regimental blazers will very rarely be the same, as they are made up from different civilian sources and are not issued by any authority. This has come to be representative of the fact that the members of the association are now civilians, but retain the bond that the badge represents. The standard colour is navy blue, although in some associations different colours are worn, such as rifle green for the associations of rifle regiments.
Where the blazer is part of the dress of a school, college, sports club, or armed service veterans' association, it is normal for a badge to be sewn to the breast pocket. In schools, this may vary according to the student's standing in the school; whether a member of the junior or senior school, being a prefect or having been awarded colours. Colours are awarded in recognition of particular achievement in some academic or sporting field.
History
The term blazer originated with the red 'blazers' of the Lady Margaret Boat Club, the rowing club of St. John's College, Cambridge. The Lady Margaret jackets were termed blazers due to their bright red 'blazing' colour, and the term was adopted for wider use later. These early blazers were like later sports jackets, but this term has never referred to blazers, instead describing jackets derived from the later innovation of wearing odd jackets for land-based sports. Assertions that the name is derived from HMS Blazer are not borne out by contemporary sources, although it is reported that before the standardisation of uniform in the Royal Navy, the crew of HMS Blazer wore 'striped blue and white jackets'[3], apparently in response to the sailors of HMS Harlequin being turned out in harlequin suits.[4]
The reefer jacket was of naval origin, and described the short double breasted jacket worn by sailors in harsh weather, when they perform duties such as reefing the sails. It is descendents of this which are now commonly described by the term blazer.
Striped blazers became popular among British mods in the early 1960s, and again during the mod revival of the late 1970s — particularly in three-colour thick/thin stripe combinations, with three-button single breasted front, five or six inch side or centre vents and sleeve-cuffs with multi-buttons. Various photos from 1964 and 1965 show London mods in boating blazers. Photos of mod icons The Who from 1964 (as the High Numbers) variously show Pete Townshend, Keith Moon and John Entwistle wearing boating blazers. Another mod band, Small Faces, and other bands liked by mods — such as The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, The Animals, The Yardbirds, The Moody Blues and The Troggs — had band members wearing striped blazers/boating jackets or later, brightly-coloured blazers with wide white or other light edging. Buttons on these later blazers often became non-metal, sometimes in the same colour as the edging. The earlier style of striped blazers can be seen in the film Quadrophenia. The later bright style of blazer was affectionately adopted by Austin Powers as part of his Swinging London look.
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