Women's Blazer (Coats & Jackets)

Inside the chest of a blazer sits either a canvas, a springy interlining stitched in and free to move with the cloth, or fusing, a stiffener glued to the back of the fabric. Those hidden layers, plus shaping at the shoulder, a lapel that rolls rather than folds, and a lining that lets the jacket slide over what is underneath, are what turn it into tailoring instead of a jacket shape.

How much structure is present sets how formal it looks completely. A fully lined blazer with a defined shoulder reads as workwear and holds its outline over the back of a chair. An unlined, unstructured version in linen or cotton behaves closer to a cardigan and belongs to warm weather and relaxed rooms. Buying the wrong one for your dress code is the usual and expensive mistake. Canvas costs more than fusing and repays it over years, because glue eventually bubbles along the front edges of a fused jacket and no repair exists.

A suit jacket uses identical construction and is sold with matching trousers, cut to be worn with them. Moto jackets hold their line through leather and hardware rather than internal canvas. Bombers gather the body into a knit band and shape nothing at all. Kimono-style jackets carry no structure whatsoever, and that contrast is the clearest way to see what the money here buys.

Offices, interviews and any room where a knit reads as underdressed call for one. It pulls a plain outfit together faster than anything else you own. Dry weather above about 60 degrees is its range, since a blazer is built for rooms rather than weather. Anyone between sizes should fit the shoulder and alter everything else, because sleeves, waist and hem are routine work and the shoulder is not.

Stand square to a mirror and study the shoulder seam, which should sit at the outer edge of your own shoulder with the sleeve falling straight from it, no dent and no bulge. Slide two fingers between the lapel and your chest with the jacket buttoned, since strain there means the chest is too small whatever the label says. Use a broad hanger with shaped ends, because a wire one folds a dimple into the shoulder that steaming cannot lift. Brush it after wearing and clean it twice a season at most, as solvent strips the oils keeping wool supple.