Blazing Your Jeans
As in, wearing them with a blazer.
This was a tricky one for me. How to wear a blazer with jeans. I haven’t worn a blazer with jeans in more than a decade. At least not with any real consistency or intention.
When I was in my twenties I loved wearing a blazer with jeans. It made me feel grown-up and, working in fashion, it worked for work without feeling too worky. At the time, my blazer of choice was by Junya Watanabe for Commes des Garçons – true navy with a heavily darted waist, shoulder pads, and ribbed inserts running half way down the sleeves. The jeans I’d wear with my Junya jacket were just-as-stiff Proenza Schouler straight legs. No stretch. A clean wash. It was 2013 and they cost a whopping $275.
Interestingly, darted waists are back for blazers right now, though sadly I can’t say my Junya feels right. The neckline is too low; the collar is too broad; the sleeves aren’t slim enough. Today, good blazers shape the body in much less angular ways. They hover over us at points and come in close at others. Not tight, per se, but touching. Probably their leanness is a direct response to the still-pervasive bigness of bottoms. Their curves echo barreled legs and also reel that volume back in.
The blazers I’m drawn to – I realized after trying many – have some structure and feel distinctly feminine. Collared or not, they are undoubtedly elegant, and of course they fit very well. If they are expensive (and they are) it’s because they are held up by a level of construction far exceeding that of, say, a sweater, or even a pair of jeans. (The shoulder on that Chloé blazer is round and padded, guys.) You have to just trust me when I tell you that the fabrics here are all sublime. And soft to the touch. And lined, which always ups the cost. I don’t know, I really splurged on these (and I’m not keeping them all, good god), but I am actually a grown up now – I don’t need a blazer to feel like one – and that means knowing quality when I see it.
The truth is, I spent two days playing with blazers and it didn’t really click until I stopped trying to build my outfits for them. Tailoring with tailoring, gotta dress them up!!! Talk about pressure. I was starting to feel resentful. Resistant to blazers. And then, one day, I just… relaxed. Maybe I even stopped caring. Here are these Stella McCartney corduroy-denim hybrids I’m really into again… the slip-on sneakers I wear to go back and forth between our house and my studio by the pool… It was a pretty standard WFH day – a Made Revival white tee, the usual – when I put on this Calvin Klein Collection blazer and it felt so good. With what I was already so comfortable wearing. Easy as that.
Total side note: The flag behind my seamless was a set piece designed by Mark Friedberg for the The Amazing Spiderman 2, which my husband Marc directed. It was made for Mary Jane’s garage, and though it didn’t end up appearing in the film, it did make it across the country, from our home in New York to my studio in L.A. I love it and – jeans being an authentic American thing – love how it looks in my little world of denim. (And blazers.)
I’m telling you, the moment I quit trying to make “looks,” I understood the assignment. A blazer is a layer. It sounds so simple when I say it, but I had to get past my former relationship with this type of jacket (dress to impress!) in order to wear any of them anew. Some other examples of how I layer my new favorite blazer with everything I already love: Over a slightly sheer Bode shirt (above), and with my workhorse uniform – bootcut jeans, black t-shirt, belt (below).
Here’s a lunch-y houndstooth with my treasured Levi’s Big E 501s, cuffed because they are literal antiques (an alteration would be criminal), and I like a big, selvedge hem. You know how kids wear the same pair of sneakers with everything, whatever’s on, and it always works? That’s the approach I take with these boots. I know I talk about them a lot, but I genuinely wear them a lot. And now, with a super fancy jacket, too.
Last look: The Toteme blazer I hinted at in last week’s post, with and without a t-shirt underneath. Not so much about styling, but a test of its ability to accommodate. I like it both ways – buttoned up as a tunic with a barely flared jean, and open over this new AMO cigarette fit with a sneaker. It’s a good one, by the way – that Adidas x Wales Bonner sneak – if you’re looking.
And that’s it. I hope I’ve inspired you to try a blazer – or at the very least stick to wearing what you love. Thank you for reading and subscribing and liking and commenting and being here, week after week. Thank you for trusting me with your jeans! As always and until next time, Denim Forever.
Jane
And now, some links to good things…
The new Le Mer lip treatment is absolutely luscious.
I use this oil on my face first thing in the morning. And this oil on my feet before bed every night.
Pure Radiance’s new eye cream comes with a tiny spoon that my seven year-old daughter has already claimed as her own. I’ve started applying it in the mornings, too. (Why I’ve only ever applied eye cream at night is now a mystery to me.)
I purchased this step stool from last week’s post and I swear it’s elevated everything in my closet.
Thank you for doing this post. I have always struggled with wearing blazers. I especially love the look of the Calvin Klein one.
When I was younger, now 66, I wore blazers and jeans frequently, but now they seem too up tight. I find softly structure blazers or a mix of a blazer and sweater works best now. I bought two sweater lady jackets and couldn’t figure out how to style them. Once I put more casual things with them such as a jean shirt and jeans and then the lady jacket it worked.