Sport coats with J Crew chinos?
Derek Guy seems pretty down on wearing a sports coat with what he called knockaround chinos, like you'd get from J Crew, Ralph Lauren, and the like. But are there are any sports coats that could work with these more casual styles of chinos and not strictly the Rota's of the fashion world?
23 Replies
Yes there are lots that can work. They just need to be more casual versions.
First of all, J Crew and RL make a lot of different types of chinos. Instead of categorizing chinos by brand, instead look to design details that would 1) make chinos more casual vs dressy (e.g., visible vs hidden side seams) and 2) make chinos less or more cohesive with a tailored jacket (e.g., higher rise vs lower rise, pleated vs flat front, straight silhouette vs tapered)
Second of all, if you can wear jeans or fatigues with sport coats, you can definitely wear chinos, even "knockaround" ones (don't really know what that means but I'm guessing it means less dressy chinos)
basically avoid slim tapered chinos and go for higher rise, pleated, straight leg / wide leg ones and you should be good. eye test is always better than theory so post fits for feedback in #styling-suggestions or #questions-and-advice if you want more detailed feedback
I get that fabrics can make a jacket more casual, but are there specific style/cuts of jacket to look for?
seconding the eye test
the cardinal rule of getting dressed
Thanks, that's helpful advice to use looking for chinos. And yeah, he meant more casual; his take was the "right" chinos were basically identical to wool dress trousers but made of cotton. Also single seamed instead of double-seamed and puckered (as he called it).
Yeah, I think my fashion eyesight needs glasses. I'll post pics when I work up the nerve.
I mean, yes and no. If you want to wear dressy chinos in a really trad outfit then yeah hidden side seams is probably the way to go. But you can totally wear a blazer or sport coat with workwear / non dressy pants and look sick af doing it, as shown here
the main important factors that make these work are a high rise and a wider straight leg. this fit wouldn't look as good if they were slim, tapered, low rise pants
I was thinking of something along those lines, but with a more textured jacket.
as long as it's a sport coat or blazer and not an orphaned suit jacket, it should work
like that fit would look great with a gray glen check tweed or a brown herringbone
A tweed or herringbone is what I was thinking, I have the chinos already.
This is the kind of jacket I had in mind
yeah that should work with high rise straight/wide chinos. what chinos are they?
Abercrombie & Fitch 90s classic and J Crew 770
I have the 770s and I find them too skinny to look good with a blazer
Pretty sure the giant fit chinos would look a lot better
Something like this for example
Oh sorry, these are the classic fit not the 770s. I don't do anything slim really. At long last the pants I like are back in style! And yeah, I plan on picking up the giants too.
Both of those chinos look unfortunately low rise and more tapered than I prefer
Giant chinos would probably work great though
Or, this server's meme chinos, Polo Ralph Lauren Andrews on ebay
the classic fit chino would be a good fit if you can't fnd the giants
they're only about 1-2" narrower of a leg opening
Ah gotcha. Well, like I said, I'll be picking up Giants anyway.
They're not terrible but 1-2" makes a big difference in leg opening and the rise on them also looks a bit short to wear with a tailored jacket
I personally wouldn't do it but I'm kinda picky
true
That looks so good