National Seersucker Day is a week from today. To get the festivities started, see if you can guess the maker of the jacket above, which is currently for sale by an American retailer.
The jacket has a 3/2 roll, patch pockets, and no darts (though obviously some shaping). — CC
Club Monaco
Guesses so far on our Facebook page include J. Crew, JC Penney, York Street….
Definitely Sid Mashburn.
Haspel, made by Southwick
Sid Mashburn, of course.
Sid.
I’d say Club Monaco
In a move that will almost certainly elicit emoticons suggesting stern disapproval, I’m going to wear my BB Black Fleece seersucker suit next Thursday. (I believe that I have something like 15 BB BF suits in a number of fairly over-the-top colors/patterns and routinely wear them on holidays and special events. More proof that I easily deserve the label “WASP gone bad” that a classmate or two have used to describe me.)
“Think All-American aesthetic with an Italian cut… with a 3-button 2-roll, a center vent, and no front darts at all, a classic sack jacket is heavy on the old-school academic look.”
http://www.sidmashburn.com/shop/tailored-clothing/blue-seersucker-virgil-sack-flap-patch-pocket.html
Yikes! A thousand bucks seems a bit high for a seersucker suit. Or is that a fair price these days?
Slim fit!
Sid Who?
Definitely from Sid. If you haven’t checked out his shops in Atl, Houston, or (soon to be) DC….I highly recommend you do
Im,
For the price of one Sid you can get three Brooks Brothers seersuckers (Fitzgerald! Madison! Milano! – collect the whole set) if you stack 30% corp and 15% new credit card.
Oh, and Mashburn’s sizing charts are amusingly inaccurate. They claim that their EU50/US40 fits an actual chest measurement of 40-42. I visited the ATL store last weekend. I’m a 41 actual chest and their EU52/US42 is a slim fit (and shows some backside); their 54/44 is acceptable until you grab your tape measure, check the trouser rise, cringe at the thought of testicular suffocation, and put the whole thing back on the rack.
I’m a sportcoat guy not a suit guy anyway, but even more so with seersucker. Jacket only, please.
Maybe it’s a southern thing, but I like seersucker in suit, sport coat, shirt, pants, pajama, robe or pretty much any other form. Not all at once, though, please. Like madras plaids, one item at a time is plenty. I even have a BB seersucker bow tie in navy, yellow and white stripes that looks great with a navy blazer and crisp white button-down.
@Christian,
Not trying to be judgmental in any way, but I’ve never seen the appeal of sport coats. I have several, but I almost never wear them. Every time I think about wearing one, I almost always decide that a suit is a better alternative. Of course, I have lots of suits that I think of as being fairly casual. Other people don’t quite see things the same way. A couple of years ago I wore a cotton oxford cloth suit, which I think of as being very to work, which I think of as being very, very casual, and people asked me if I had an interview that day. Similarly, when wearing the same suit I got comments about how I looked like I was getting ready to meet with some of our big banking customers. So I’ve come to accept that almost all of the world doesn’t view clothing like I do.
This fall, though, I’m going to try very hard to find excuses to wear a couple of the BB Own Make sport coats that I picked up a while ago. But while I’m still trying to keep an open mind, I’m fairly sure that I’ll be back to suits before long.
No need to apologize for personal preferences. You know I don’t presume to tell others how to dress.
I would point out, though, just for kicks, that the sport coat (tweed or madras) and blazer are central to this genre of dressing, with its roots in sporting attire and non-business campus attire.
I’ve only worn seersucker as a suit, but like the idea of trying it as a sport coat. What sort of pants would be pared with a blue striped, seersucker jacket?
@Ward
You could wear the seersucker jacket with khakis or poplin trousers, jeans, off-white or white trousers (linen or cotton), and navy chinos, as well as trousers in various GTH colors. I’ve even seen The Andover Shop’s Charlie Davidson wear a blue seersucker sport coat with grey wool trousers…it looked surprisingly sharp. I’ll also say that Charlie is a fan of Sid Mashburn’s stuff. We talked about it the other day.
Christian–I’m not really a fan of the blue/white ‘sucker, but I love the tie in the picture. Any chance of letting us know the maker? Thanks.
Thanks, All. I appreciate it. I’ll be trying some of that this summer.
Paul Stuart!
I got married in a Haspel three piece blue seersucker suit back in the 1970s. Yes, I grew up in the South. If I was going to experiment with a seersucker blazer having never tried one, I would go to Macy’s and pay $150 for a Lauren 2-button center vent jacket.
S. Cohen for J Press or Hickey Freeman for Polo Blue Label
Went to an August wedding in Wisconsin last year and my wife (from Chicago) asked me 3 months in advance what I was planning to wear to it – seersucker jacket, rose knit tie, white OCBD, white pants, cordovan belt and loafers I replied as the wedding invite said wear summer garden dress. She told me the wedding didn’t have a Gatsby theme as far as she knew. After the wedding she told me she couldn’t believe how many people told her how much they liked what I wore and wished their husbands dressed accordingly. She said she was ready with her typical dressing excuse (“he’s from New England” i.e conservative dresser), but she was pleasantly surprised.
@Ward: I was in the same boat – I’d only worn a full seersucker suit; but I recently got a BB jacket as a gift, and have slowly gotten comfortable wearing it with khakis. I also put black laces in my white bucks: I wanted to avoid what Garden & Gun magazine calls, “The Full Mobile” look.
What I’d really like to find is a blue pincord suit. My dad had one. Does anybody still make them?
Who’s making it for Sid Mashburn?
I’m not crazy about the button stance. Too low.
You can get a Southwick made to measure seersucker suit for under a grand.
Paul, yes. Southwick offers a great looking pincord suit if you want to cloth number, I’ll get it to you.
@ward,@al Blue seersucker with gray(or blue) summer weight wool trousers-anytime. @paul Pincord suit – 30 years ago my wife called it my “dentist outfit”. That’s what it reminded her of back then.
I’ve always worn the classic Brooks Brothers blue/white seersucker suit (still reasonably priced) in hot weather, and don’t think there’s a need for anyone else to make one.
I don’t believe any amount of tailoring is going to greatly impact the overall look of seersucker. It’s a simple fabric, and I’m amazed that places like Ben Silver are asking over $1000.
The accessories one uses with seersucker are most important. I have a pair of white bucks that one would expect, but prefer to pair my BB seersucker with spectators — either by Bally or Allen Edmonds.
I’ve never worn a seersucker jacket alone, but see no reason why this shouldn’t work fine, although it seems trickier and requiring more skill than I possess.
S.E.,
Sid seems to keep a tight lid on who manufactures his in-house line. According to GQ it is someone in Southern Italy. If anyone has any insight I would appreciate it.
Figures.
O’Connell’s offers this very nice pincord suit. Very reasonable price, too.
http://www.oconnellsclothing.com/O-Connell-s-Suit-Cotton-Pincord-Blue-78-0232.html
Southwick swatch # 95171. Blue pincord. Poly (30%) cotton blend.
C range.
Thanks again, Al, for the ideas. I wouldn’t have thought it could be worn with such a broad array of pants. Sorry to miss-spell your name as All.
Paul, the whitebucks are a great idea. Very summery. I have an old pair bought in the 1980’s when Barrie’s was in operation next door to J Press in New Haven. Still a comfortable fit.
And, Js, the light wool trouser sounds perfect for more formal settings. I can see myself easily wearing that.