Editing Blazer

{{short description|Striped or bright, solid-color informal jacket}}
{{About|blazer jackets|the vehicle|Chevrolet Blazer (disambiguation){{!}}Chevrolet Blazer|other uses|Blazer (disambiguation)}}
{{more citations needed|date=September 2008}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2017}}
[[File:Blazer.JPG|226x226px|thumb|A single-breasted, reefer-style, [[navy blue]] blazer, dressed with brass buttons.]]

[[File:Blazing Red.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A patch logo blazer from historic Ivy style retailer [[J. Press]] ]]
[[File:Turquoise vintage Polo Ralph Lauren blazer.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Turquoise vintage [[Polo Ralph Lauren]] blazer]]
A '''blazer''' is a jacket worn as part of a [[smart casual]] or [[business casual]] look. 
Similar to a [[sport jacket]], a blazer is not part of a formal  [[suit]], and the terms "sport coat" and "blazer" may be used interchangeably in daily life.
A nautical blazer is a double-breasted [[navy blue]] jacket with naval-style metal buttons (gold or silver coloured), while [[rowing (sport)|rowing]]/[[cricket]] blazers have bright-coloured solid stripes, and a patch on the chest pocket denoting the club or college. Other rowing/cricket blazers featuring a contrasting piping along notched lapels were worn more formally for the presentation of cups or medals.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gunn |first1=Douglas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DvUgEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT26 |title=Vintage Menswear: A Collection from The Vintage Showroom |last2=Luckett |first2=Roy |date=2012-09-10 |publisher=Orion |isbn=978-1-78067-381-3 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kane |first=Hannah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EWSjEAAAQBAJ |title=The Style Thesaurus: A definitive, gender-neutral guide to the meaning of style and an essential wardrobe companion for all fashion lovers |date=2023 |publisher=Quercus |isbn=978-1-5294-2188-0 |language=en}}</ref>
Originally a scarlet jacket worn in club or plain colours when [[boating]] or [[cricket]]ing, the garment gradually lost its connection with sportswear from the 1930s onward to enter classic [[Ivy League (clothes)|Ivy style]], and the look came to be associated with the lifestyle of [[upper class|wealthy elites]] in North America and Europe.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Picken |first=Mary Brooks |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CbOI4TCcnbQC |title=A Dictionary of Costume and Fashion: Historic and Modern |date=2013 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=978-0-486-14160-2 |pages=22, 338 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Cumming |first1=Valerie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7NOj8Mc7GowC |title=The Dictionary of Fashion History |last2=Cunnington |first2=C. W. |last3=Cunnington |first3=P. E. |date=2010 |publisher=Berg |isbn=978-1-84788-533-3 |pages=23 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Vanderlinde |first=Pamela |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wm3-DwAAQBAJ |title=Patternmaking for Jacket and Coat Design |date=2020 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4742-3572-3 |pages=26 |language=en}}</ref>
Blazers can be part of a [[uniform]]  for employees, pupils of a particular school, members of sports clubs, or sportspeople on a particular team.

==Wear==
{{Unreferenced section|date=February 2025}}
[[File:Old Ardinian Blazer.jpg|thumb|right|250px|1919 striped old boy blazer of former [[Ardingly College]] pupils in school colors with embroidered pelican and "O.A" meaning "Old Ardinian"]]

Blazers are worn with a wide variety of clothes, ranging from a [[dress shirt]] and [[necktie]] to an open-necked polo shirt, or even just a plain [[t-shirt]]. They are seen with trousers of all colours and fabrics, from the classic white cotton or [[linen]], to grey [[flannel]], to brown or beige [[chino cloth|chinos]], and also [[jeans]].

A fitted, classically cut, double-breasted navy blue blazer with navy-style buttons is a popular design and sometimes referred to as a "reefer" blazer. Particularly in North America and the UK, it is often used in [[business casual]] attire.

[[File:Cambridge-half-blue-blazer.jpg|thumb|right|A [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]] Rifle Association [[blue (university sport)|half-blue]] blazer|199x199px]]
Blazers, in a wide range of colours, are worn as part of [[school uniform]]s by many schools across the [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]], and are still daily wear for most uniformed pupils in Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. These are blazers in the traditional sense: single-breasted, and often of bright colours or with [[Piping (sewing)|piping]]. This style is also worn by some boat clubs, such as those in [[Cambridge University|Cambridge]] or [[Oxford University|Oxford]], with the piped version used only on special occasions such as a boat club dinner. In this case, the piping is in [[Oxbridge scarf colours|college colours]], and college buttons are worn. This traditional style can be seen in many feature films set in the [[Edwardian era]], such as ''[[Kind Hearts and Coronets]]''.

[[File:SRWaugh.png|thumb|Australian cricketer [[Steve Waugh]] wearing [[baggy green]] [[cricket cap]] and striped, college-style blazer in Australia's national colours]]

Where the blazer is part of the dress of a school, college, sports club, or armed service regimental association (veterans' organization), it is normal for a badge to be sewn to the breast pocket. In schools, this badge may vary according to the pupil's standing in the school: being a member of the junior or senior school, being a [[prefect]], or having been awarded colours in recognition of particular achievement in some academic or sporting field. In the Commonwealth, many regimental associations wear "regimental blazers" which also sport a similar badge on the breast pocket, usually in the form of a wire badge, and sometimes also regimental blazer buttons.

In the [[British Army]], officers do not normally wear badges on their blazers (or boating jackets). Two regimental blazers will rarely be the same, as they are sourced from different civilian suppliers and are not issued by any authority. This results from the fact that the members of the association are no longer serving personnel, but civilians, though still retaining 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.

[[file:Oxford-half-blue-blazer.jpg |thumb|right|250px| [[Oxford University]] Rifle Club Half Blue blazer and tie]]

Blazers, once commonly worn playing or attending traditional "gentlemen's sports", persist in only some games now, such as occasional use by tennis players, or in cricket, where in professional matches, such as international test matches, it is considered customary for the captain to wear a blazer with the team's logo or national coat of arms on the breast pocket—at least during the coin toss at the beginning of the match.

Two sporting events where blazers signify victory are the [[Congressional Cup|Congressional Cup Regatta]], at the [[Long Beach Yacht Club, California]], and the [[Masters Tournament|Masters golf tournament]], held in [[Augusta, Georgia|Augusta]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]. The former event awards a crimson blazer to the  winner of the regatta, while the latter awards a green blazer to the winner of the Masters.

==History==
The sartorial term ''blazer'' originated with the red "blazers" of the [[Lady Margaret Boat Club]] (1825), the rowing club of [[St. John's College, Cambridge]]. The Lady Margaret club jackets were termed ''blazers'' because of the bright red cloth, and the term survived the original red coat.

[[Walter Wren]], a writer to the London ''[[The Daily News (UK)|Daily News]]'' (22 August 1889) commented that "In your article of to-day … you speak of 'a striped red and black blazer', 'the blazer', also of 'the pale toned' ones. … A blazer is the red flannel boating jacket worn by the Lady Margaret, St. John's College, Cambridge, Boat Club. When I was at Cambridge it meant that and nothing else. It seems from your article that a blazer now means a coloured flannel jacket, whether for cricket, tennis, boating, or seaside wear."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Farmer |first1=John |title=The Public School Word-book: A Contribution to a Historical Glossary of Words, Phrases, and Turns of Expression Obsolete and in Present Use, Peculiar to Our Great Public Schools, Together with Some that Have Been Or are Modish at the Universities |date=1900 |publisher=Hirscheld Brothers |pages=243 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gaEVAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22In%20your%20article%20of%20to-day%20%E2%80%A6%20you%20speak%20of%20'a%20striped%20red%20and%20black%20blazer'%2C%20'the%20blazer'%2C%20also%20of%20'the%20pale%20toned'%20ones%20%E2%80%A6%20A%20blazer%20is%20the%20red%20flannel%20boating%20jacket%20worn%20by%20the%20Lady%20Margaret%2C%20St.%20John's%20College%2C%20Cambridge%2C%20Boat%20Club.%20When%20I%20was%20at%20Cambridge%20it%20meant%20that%20and%20nothing%20else.%20It%20seems%20from%20your%20article%20that%20a%20blazer%20now%20means%20a%20coloured%20flannel%20jacket%2C%20whether%20for%20cricket%2C%20tennis%2C%20boating%2C%20or%20seaside%20wear.&pg=PA24 |access-date=10 December 2021}}</ref>
[[File:Leonard Bernstein NYWTS 1945.jpg|thumb|left|A rowing blazer worn by [[Leonard Bernstein]].]]
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 [[Royal Navy uniform#Ratings|standardization of uniform in the Royal Navy]], the crew of HMS ''Blazer'' wore "striped blue and white jackets",<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060304101909/http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/server/show/nav.3772 The History of Rating Uniforms : Uniforms and Badges of Rank : RN Life : Training and People : Royal Navy<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> apparently in response to the sailors of [[HMS Harlequin|HMS ''Harlequin'']] being turned out in [[harlequin]] suits.<ref>{{cite book|last=Regan|first=Geoffrey|title=The Guinness Book of Naval Blunders|year=1993|publisher=Guinness|isbn=0-85112-713-4|page=90}}</ref> As late as 1837 the gig's crew of HMS ''Blazer'' were dressed by their Captain in jackets of blue and white stripes and it is from this that the word ''blazer'', meaning a striped jacket, has entered the language.<ref>{{cite book |last=Talbot-Booth |first=E.C. |year=1940 |title=All the World's Fighting Fleets |edition=4th |publisher=[[Sampson Low]], Marston & Co. Ltd |location=London}}{{page needed|date=August 2013}}</ref>{{vague|date=September 2015}}

The reefer jacket of naval origin, described the short double-breasted jacket worn by sailors in harsh weather, while performing duties such as [[reefing]] the sails. It is the descendants of these jackets that are now commonly referred by the term ''blazer''. Originally featuring black horn buttons, these jackets evolved into the modern dark blazer, now available in both single and double-breasted styles, often with metallic buttons.
[[File:Dunfermline College of Physical Education Blazer.jpg|thumb|A striped blazer from [[Dunfermline College of Physical Education]]. ]]
Striped blazers became popular among British [[Mod (subculture)|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 cuffs with multiple 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 Beatles]], [[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. These later blazers often had non-metal buttons, sometimes in the same colour as the edging. The earlier style of striped blazers can be seen in the film ''[[Quadrophenia (film)|Quadrophenia]]''. The later, bright, style of blazer was affectionately adopted by [[Austin Powers (character)|Austin Powers]] as part of his [[Swinging London|Swinging-London]] look.{{Citation needed|date=June 2008}}

By the late 2000s the blazer had been adopted as a popular fashion trend amongst women, often having shorter lengths, rolled-up sleeves, various lapels and bright colours.

==See also==
*[[Sport coat]]
*[[Suit (clothing)|Suit]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Commonscat-inline|Blazers}}

{{Clothing}}

[[Category:Lounge jackets]]