What Is A "Dinner Jacket?"

[Alan Eardley]

Spoilsport...

At the risk of pedantry I think you will find that George III was actually on the throne during the American War of Independence. 1775 to 1783.

George V was born in 1865, ascended to the throne in 1910 and died in 1936.

The reason the USA is not a part of the Commonwealth is that the majority of the remaining British colonies sought independence post WW II at which point America had already been an independant state for at least 175 years.

Why intervene with the facts? I, for one, was enjoying this marvellous alternative view of history!

 

[Alan Eardley]

Definitions...

What's BOHO and what's a plimsoll?

Boho is street fashion talk for Bohemian. Plimsols are light canvas shoes or pumps.

 

[FreddieVonRost]

What's BOHO and what's a plimsoll?

Evening JiC,

BOHO = Bohemian.
Plimsolls = Training shoes. Think Dunlop Green Flash style before PIKE et al laid their corporate hands on them.
Chav/Chavette = People of all ages who feel it necessary to dress appallingly in fake designer gear, wear cheap fake gold jewellery and behave in the most unpleasant and anti-social manner possible. England's version of trailer trash I suppose. Also known as spivs, pikeys or yoofs.

 

[Happy Stroller]

Going back to the red jacket, I think that the term "house jacket" which they use in Esquire means the same thing as "smoking jacket". Both terms refer to a jacket worn at home, replacing either a dinner jacket coat or a city suit coat. The original smoking jacket looks Edwardian, and the one presented in Esquire is a more modern version (modern for the 30's). The name "house jacket" is just a more modern name, just as Esquire liked to give inventive names to new colors, for example.

=================== End of quote ========================
Don't know about whether the original smoking jacket was DB, but wasn't it supposed to have braided frog, not toggle, closures, all velvet and only waist-length instead of hip-length?

The idea of house jackets sounds interesting and more democratic, since there are many who do not smoke at all. Whether similar to a smoking or a dinner jacket, the freedom to select any fanciful color, lapels, Breastless, SB or DB, closure, whatever, is an attractive proposition for a modern day home worker in the new Internet Age. Wearing something formal may prevent such a person from developing a sloppy life style and unproductive habits while keeping house.

Or, is a house jacket for day wear, while a smoking jacket for evening wear?

 

[geo]

house jacket=smoking jacket
They are the same thing. House jacket is a name invented by Esquire in the 30's, maybe because smoking jacket sounded too victorian and outdated. They wanted to modernise the concept, so they called it a house jacket.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

House jacket is a name invented by Esquire in the 30's, ...

How do you know this for sure?




.

 

[manton]

How do you know this for sure? .

It's probably impossible to know for sure, but it's likely. I did a little checking, and it turns out that to the extent that Savile Row recognizes the term "house coat" or jacket at all, it is closer to what we think of as dressing gown.

I love Esquire and Apparel Arts -- more than most, probably -- but they didn't just report. Sometimes they pushed new stuff and invented new terms and categories. Or sometimes the editors would see something new in a real setting, then depict it in a later issue and make up a term for it.

 

[geo]

How do you know this for sure?

I happen to be in possession of tangible proof and also of certain facts, but I'll have to keep these secret for the time being.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Now, now - are you pulling my leg? (Actually, I want to believe that you really are in possession of potentially explosive sartorial secrets, but ...)

.

 

[geo]

I've already said too much. I have to change my name and dissapear now. However, if I don't happen to resurface again, those concerned should know that said potentially explosive sartorial secrets are in the posession of a certain well-known newspaper, with instructions to publish, if I ever happen to |
'
-

 

[Marc Chevalier]

AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!


.

 

[manton]

I've already said too much. I have to change my name and dissapear now. However, if I don't happen to resurface again, those concerned should know that said potentially explosive sartorial secrets are in the posession of a certain well-known newspaper, with instructions to publish, if I ever happen to |
'
-

Isn't that the ending of Three Days of the Condor?