Would You Wear It? The Button Tab Light Sportcoat

J. Crew Oxford Sportcoat in Ludlow Fit – $348.00

Is this going to end up being Epaulets v 2.0?

Button tab, throat latch, storm tab… it’s that extra piece that hangs from the side of a sport coat’s lapel that you most often see on tweedish hunting style jackets.  It’s a detail that harkens back to a time when the sport coat would often do duty as a functional piece of outerwear.  Y’know, say a freak thunderstorm rolls up while you’re galloping through the forrest on your fox hunt.  You’d flip the lapels up (thou shall popeth thy collar good sir) and you could keep the wind and rain out by buttoning the gap closed with the tab.  Sort of like how you can close a trench.

The J. Crew shown above takes the traditional details of a cold weather sporting jacket and slaps them on a lighter color / lighter weight fabric.  The patch pockets, 3-button front, and the button tab collar are all things you’d expect on a nubby, rough, winter ready wool.  Instead, it’s an oxford cotton that just came out for summer.

$348 is way up there.  But for argument’s sake, pretend it was in the $100s like their corded cotton sport coat.  And Banana Republic also just came out with one that’ll get nicely priced with a sale ($128.60 when 30% off).  Is this something you’d prefer to have?  Or unless it’s on some tweed hunting thing, does it end up being a distraction?  It’s 99% aesthetic, yes, but it’s functionality is to help keep bad weather out.  And these are summery sport coats.  Has a bit of a this-doesn’t-make-sense jorts-esque feel.

Leave it all below…

Also appearing on Banana Republic’s new cotton blazer.  These going to be on everything now?