Julie Rath: Wake Up that Navy Blazer

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Oh, excuse me, someone was talking to me about navy  blazers, and I fell asleep.

The idea of navy blazers typically conjures memories of a first trip to  Brooks Brothers for a rite of passage Sunday jacket, gold buttons and all. But not all navy blazers have to be a snoozefest. In fact,  there are ways to take this conservative stalwart and give it a good shake-up. Read on for 5 tips on how to make a navy blazer your own:

1) Get it tailored so that it FITS you. I’ve you’re a  current Rath & Co. client, or if you’ve been following me for some time, you  know I’m a stickler for clothes that fit perfectly. So if you have a navy blazer  that’s been hanging around your closet for a while, and the fit is within  striking distance (the first thing to check is if it’s right across the  shoulders), take it to a tailor you trust, and have him or her check the rest,  including waist, arms and length, and make adjustments as needed. You’d be  amazed at the 180 a jacket can take with a few nips and tucks.

2) Swap out those trad gold buttons for ones made of horn or  gunmetal, like in the image above of a blazer I designed for a client.  You’ll go from preppy to polished in no time.

3) Rather than standard navy, consider a blue with some kick to it,  like midnight, cobalt or royal. Check out the same shot above of my  client in his spanking new bright blue blazer. (His fiancée wasn’t  complaining.)

4) Instead of a solid, try a subtly patterned  fabric, like this tone-on-tone windowpane (above left — you have to  expand the image to see the pattern) I just picked out for a different client. A  blue hounds-tooth or pin-dot (above center and right) would also work, as would  blue tweed in cold weather. From 4 + feet away, these fabrics read as solid, but  up close you can see the extra oomph.

5) Wear it casually. This is an entire blog post on its own – much bigger than one bullet point, but I’ll give you the broad strokes. If  you’re bored by the navy blazer-khaki pants routine (or if it just isn’t you),  mix it up by pairing your blue blazer with casual pieces: with jeans, layered  over a t-shirt and hoodie or cardigan, with a casual (perhaps short-sleeved – no  one will know) shirt in a quirky pattern as seen in the above image and/or with  casual laceups.

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How do you like to wear a navy blazer?