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The close but no cigar corduory sportcoat

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American Rag Corduroy Elbow Patch Blazer – $67.58 w/ SAVEMORE ($79.50)

If Macy’s Men’s brands were a family, here’s how the rear window sticker in their mini van would shake down:

Easy there American Rag
That’s hugely generalizing, but you get the idea.  Most of us have the best luck with the slimmed down Alfani RED, and INC as long as it doesn’t get too flashy.  Tasso Elba leans more traditional but they’ve skewed younger here and there.  American Rag is the youngest and orneriest of the bunch.

So when American Rag debuted a new corduroy elbow-patch blazer, it was both a bit of a surprise and worth a field trip to check it out.

First the good news.  It’s real slim off the rack.  Most would be able to wear it without extra tailoring.  It’s as slim as last year’s INC cord blazer (note to Macy’s:  Bring it back please.)  The wale isn’t super thick or pincord thin.  It’s a corduroy blazer for sure, but not your dad’s massively thick one from his college years.  It only has one button, but, you don’t really notice since it’s all black on black, and the stance is not too high or too low.

Now the bad news, in visual form:
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Instead of going with a more traditional suede or suede like patch, the designers slapped some thin black pleather patches on the elbows.  And they just don’t look quite right.  They do bounce some light so in bright sun they’ll stand out awkwardly on the jacket.  After a bit you start to get used to them.  Kinda.  A little.  Maybe.

Automatic deal breaker?  Or something that’s not that big of a deal to you?  Leave your take in the comments below.

One thing’s for sure, the new J. Crew cord sportcoat is lightyears ahead of this thing.  Costs twice as much though. 
Top Pic: Shirt by Just a Cheap Shirt and found on Jack Threads, Watch by Seiko, belt by GAP, jeans by Levis

Comments

  2. Horrible. No thanks. Looks quite nice from the front, but the pleather patches scream cheap. 

  3. Suede elbow patches look really great in that country gentleman sort of way.  The elbow patches on that blazer look tacky.

  4. You could probably have em taken off and replaced with better looking patches, but I guess you could just get a better looking jacket if you were to go that route.

  5. Threw up in my mouth a little at the site of that melted down 45 they slapped on the elbow there. No thanks.

  6. This is what I was thinking. If the only “deal breaker” is the patches, can they not just be switched out with a better fabric?

  8. I’m with pretty much everyone else.   Those patches are hideous.  Would have been nice without them.

  9. Pleather has the same amount of appeal to me as Tofurkey. Plastic shouldn’t pretend to be leather, tofu shouldn’t pretend to be turkey, and you shouldn’t buy this jacket for for any reason at all.

  11. I actually enjoy tofurkey much more than I enjoy the pleather patches on this jacket.  Pair it up with some Stove Top, and it’s more than edible.  Except for these elbow patches.  Too chewy.

  16. I LOVE elbow patches. But yes, i wish it was suede. But still, i may get this nonetheless. Greeeat post.

  18. Imma gonna go against the current here and suggest that this is a perfectly reasonable blazer. Sure, no old world craftsmanship or whatever, but that’s a reasonable cut, color, and the patches are fine. 

  19. Bought it.  Nice and short (for us short guys) patches don’t bother me so much for a $50 jacket (sale today in Chicago), they are more low key than the picture indicates and are hard to notice.  I’ve got a 48 chest and am 5’7″.  XXL fits ok even with my back and traps and shoulders, just needs tailoring for sleeve length.  Tried to coats on in store.  Watch the shoulders, one of them was very clean, the other (same size) was lumpy on one side.  Lapel roll seems to vary from jacket to jacket as well.  Mine was sort of high, but I just steam ironed it into submission, looks good now.  One button coat interestingly enough, you’ll need to check the stance to see if it works for you.  I imagine if I was taller it may be too high.