Erik in Stockholm shows how you can pair a sport coat with jeans without giving yourself a “sartorial mullet” (all dressy up top; too casual down bottom). Instead of thinking that jeans can take the dressiness out of a sport coat, the key is to find a tailored jacket that’s already casual. “This one is a three-patch-pocketed, unstructured barleycorn tweed,” Erik tells us. “I’ve paired it here with dark, raw denim because – although I don’t think there are such things as ‘formal jeans’ – I find that dark denim tends to look smarter with tailored jackets than the faded stuff.”
The masterstroke here is the turtleneck. Neckties are often too formal for jeans, but an open-collared shirt can leave the chest and neck areas looking too empty. A thin cashmere/ cotton turtleneck such as this one, however, can be layered underneath a sport coat and give just the right amount of visual interest. The brown suede chukkas here also help keep everything together – they have a similar rustic sensibility, and occupy the same narrow space between dressy and casual that makes this outfit work.
This would be a great look for going to work at a casual office, a walk around town on a brisk day, or simply looking at dogs with laser beam eyes – which is what Erik seems to be doing here.
