Today, I'm going to be talking about single-breasted jackets with peak lapels.
Is this is a trend? What is going on here? A lot of guys are noticing this.
Instead of telling you to subscribe and like the video, I'm actually going to give you guys a testimonial.
This is a friend of mine, Sandip. He gave me the permission to go ahead and share this email. I just got this from him. It's,
Dear Antonio. I'm sorry for the late reply. It's been a while since I've had to write you, but I wanted to let you know the things that have happened here since we last talked.
Sandip, by the way, bought my e-book, the premium e-book, and these are some of the things that he's implemented into his dressing routine. “I never go out of the office without a jacket. I mostly now wear suits, but at times, I just carry my blazer.
I never leave home without a pocket square. In fact, the other day, I forgot my pocket square, so I popped into the nearest mall, picked one up, and adorned my jacket with it. I just don't feel complete without a pocket square.” It's a good example of forming a habit and then sticking with it.
“I did a lot of research on brands of dress shoes listed in your 600-page e-book. After a lot of hunting, I finally found two shops in Dubai that carry these, one is JM Weston, the other one is John Lobb. I'll be getting my first pair of quality shoes sometime very soon. In the past, I thought that shoes at this price range were just hyped by the big brands.
However, your articles and e-book have shown a light on the little known but great shoemakers who makes shoes that last and worth every penny.”
I really like this example because it goes to show he did spend a little bit of money on my e-book, but he was able to use that information and actually find a better quality shoe, and I think save money over the long term.
He just ordered his first double edge safety razor from Amazon that I talked about, and he's basically going to be switching that out with his — he currently uses a Gillette MACH3 Fusion and he's eager to see and try how a double edge safety razor can give him a better shave.
“So you see, Antonio, you have influenced me in a big way. And for that, I'm indebted to you.”
When you come to Dubai — he's actually invited me out for a vacation, so I'm pretty excited. I've been there I think two times. When you're traveling on a boat in the military, you end up in all these places, but I definitely want to get out there, this time not on a big gator freighter.
I think that email from Sandip really just goes to show, guys, take action. Don't just watch these videos, don't just read my articles. Go out there and take action. I really want you to transform your personal style.
Okay, this is the question that came in.
Antonio, can you please explain to me the difference between a single-breasted suit and a single-breasted peak lapel suit? I can't seem to find the difference.
Is the single-breasted peak lapel trendy? I noticed that Shia Labeouf…” and I just killed that name, however you pronounce Shia's last name, “… wears these suits in Wall Street, too, and he looks sharp, but again, I can't find any difference between the single-breasted peak lapel and a single-breasted notched lapel suit. Any help would be appreciated. Dan.”
History of the Single-Breasted Peak Lapel
All right. Dan, well, the history on the single-breasted peak lapel goes back all the way to the 1920s and what we saw is men were looking for a way to take the single-breasted jacket — it was coming on the scene.
Before that, everything was double-breasted.
The double-breasted jacket, if you know, has peak lapels on it. And the single-breasted was always seen as a little bit of a notch lower in terms of formality because it didn't use as formal of a lapel and it didn't look as buttoned up.
Basically, with the double-breasted jacket, you have it so that the jacket, you've got the smaller V here and the jacket in general just looks more buttoned up.
With the single-breasted, you have this deeper V. You see more of the shirt and tie. Guys were looking for, “Okay, how can I make this more formal?” so two things that they did.
One, they introduced — and also you saw the three-piece pop on the scene, and that was where you actually were wearing a vest underneath, and that gave it a more buttoned up look.
In addition, a lot of those jackets that were made to be with the three-piece were going with the peak lapels, and that right there pretty much made it the equivalent, in fact, a little bit warmer than the double-breasted.
Now, after World War II, you saw the double-breasted go to the wayside. The peak lapels, they use more fabric, so when you had rationing, you saw really us go to the notched lapels simply because it uses less fabric and, well, really because of rationing. So all of a sudden, you saw that fall out of favor. Now, recently, there's been resurgence in men dressing sharp and a lot of guys, really smart.
I think designers have gone back and looked at 1920s, 1930s, even early, early 1940s, and they've been looking at what really inspired us in this time period.
And so, they're seeing these single-breasted jackets with peak lapels and they're going ahead and reproducing it.
I do this for clients on occasion whenever we're looking to add a little bit of — I would say a little bit of fashion.
It's not too fashion-forward because it is a classic design and it would look good on most body types.
It's a very subtle thing, but if you look at most off-the-rack, single-breasted jackets, they're all going to be notched lapels.
What To Wear With A Peaked Lapel Suit
So by going with a slim — especially it depends on the build of the man, but going with that peak lapel, it really is going to kind of notch it up just a bit in terms of fashion.
It's not really at the same time going to stand out too much because you're not bringing and introducing a new color.
You're not going with a flamboyant shirt. You're simply changing it up.
Now, I don't recommend it for a base suit. Your foundation suits, keep those simple, classic, notched lapels, but if you already own three of four suits in your wardrobe and perhaps you're a lawyer, you're a banker, a small business owner and you're rotating through a lot of jackets, go ahead and look into this.
I don't recommend it so much for sports jackets, the reason being most sports jackets are casual.
Now, you can put it on a dress or your solid collar sports jacket and that would look fine, but when you start — you know, this fabric right here, hopsack, I'm not going to put peak lapels on this. In fact, I've got regular notched lapels right here. This works fine for this casual jacket. I've got patch pockets. That's how I made this one a little bit unique.
So hopefully that answers the question. I think it's a great look for the right man. For larger men, I don't really like peak lapels. They can become a little bit too large, although if you're thinner, I really like the thin peak lapel look for a thinner, smaller man, but yeah, I look for them out there.
Mostly, you're going to find them on your higher end suits or made-to-measure custom bespoke or something like that. You're not going to find them on most off-the-rack jackets.
You know, I'm pushing you guys to that site because even though I love seeing you down on the YouTube comments, I can't always find all the questions. It's hard for me after I put out a few videos to go back and check all those things, so at Men's Style Q&A,bI can see your questions right there.
I'm watching them getting voted up to the top and that's where I'm going to be making and pulling a lot of my videos from. Okay. I'll see you guys in the next video. Bye-bye.