Deliberately-wrinkled sports coats: acceptable or passe?

May 27, 2013 12:35 PM

Men's fashion filter: wearing a wrinkled sport coat--yea nor nay?

Last month I found a J. Crew jacket in a thrift store for super cheap that fit me perfectly. Which is rare because I have a weird torso.

But when I took it to get dry cleaned, they told me that the wrinkles wouldn't come out, and that the jacket had some metal fibers that were designed to give it a rumpled look.

I remember that the wrinkled look was popular for shirts and jackets a few years ago, so I guess it's from that era. So was the wrinkled look just a passing thing, or is it still acceptable? I don't want people to think I slept in it last night. Obviously, I won't wear it to anything formal. This would be just for casual stuff.

So thumbs up or down? If "down" it won't be a huge loss because I'll only be out $8 plus the dry cleaning fee.

Here's the jacket in question.

posted by mcmile to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (14 answers total)

It looks like they're still selling a variation on this look, so sure, thumbs up.
posted by Sara C. at 12:38 PM on May 27, 2013

For casual stuff? Yeah, looks fine to me. Over a t-shirt, an untucked rumpled dress shirt, that kind of thing. Go for it.
posted by Tomorrowful at 12:41 PM on May 27, 2013

There was an awesome jacket at HM last year I almost bought but didn't because I couldn't get past the intentionally wrinkled look.

When it comes to style, only you can decide what works for you.
posted by 2oh1 at 12:42 PM on May 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

Definitely a casual look, but you have to make it look intentional.
posted by tommasz at 12:46 PM on May 27, 2013 [2 favorites]

If it was designed to be wrinkled, then yes. Where appropriate. An intentionally wrinkled jacket wouldn't be a replacement for a situation where a jacket is required. This would be more for a situation where a sweater or a non suit type jacket would be acceptable.
posted by gjc at 12:56 PM on May 27, 2013

Yup, would not look off to my eye at all, if you were to wear it to, say, a slightly trendy lounge or restaurant (nothing formal obviously). I quite like that, actually.

Note: not a fashionable person generally, living in a pretty casual large-ish city
posted by Pomo at 12:59 PM on May 27, 2013

Is it linen or a linen blend? If yes, go for it! But only in warm weather.

The cut of the jacket is more important than the fabric anyway, in terms of how quickly it will look dated. But deliberately rumply linen is definitely a thing (linen wrinkles like crazy).
posted by payoto at 1:33 PM on May 27, 2013

Voice of dissent here: thumbs down. Except for shlubbing around. It's not the rumpledness in itself that's visually bothersome -- it's the sloppiness of the cut of the collar and lumpy shoulder area that is too jarring.
posted by nacho fries at 1:33 PM on May 27, 2013 [2 favorites]

Wear it with nicely broken-in jeans, a well-worn t-shirt, and a few days of stubble: yes. To a job interview, no.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 1:43 PM on May 27, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'm with nacho fries and Ghostride The Whip. Casual wear only, but no place you wouldn't be able to wear jeans.
posted by slkinsey at 1:50 PM on May 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

Yeah, it's fine, just super casual. Be careful with color matching; hard to tell from a photograph but I could see this one in many painful combinations.
posted by SMPA at 2:19 PM on May 27, 2013

Agreeing with nacho fries. This concept is fine, that jacket is kind of meh within that concept.

It reminds me far too much of a guy I knew in school who wore a jacket like that a lot. The slightly awkward collar/cut + the tshirt and jeans outfit that it works with ends up looking a bit too much like you "ride a Honda goldwing and collect swords"

The cut of the jacket has to be just right, as do the color/material/etc for this to not look dorky, IMO.

If I opened my closet and only this was in there as far as jackets went, I'd probably wear it with dark jeans(dark wash/indigo) and a dark colored dress shirt. Maybe even just a black one. What you're going for here is a sad Keanu kind of look, maybe minus the REI hiking shoes. But it's easy to end up in moms basement territory with a jacket like this, is what I'm warning.
posted by emptythought at 2:51 PM on May 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: When it comes to style, only you can decide what works for you.

I think this gets to it. I had an aversion to the wrinkled look because growing up, if I wore a shirt without ironing it, my mom would give me this look like she was physically in pain.

But whatever, enough people seem to think the jacket is OK that I'll keep it around and see what I can do with it. I just won't wear it when mom visits.

Thanks for the advice!
posted by mcmile at 3:52 PM on May 27, 2013

I think you can wear it when you go to a coffee shop - with dark relaxed jeans, a t shirt, and lightweight trainers. Or if you're going to a farmer's market. Maybe walking the dog. Running errands. Basically for when you aren't going to actually meet people on purpose.
posted by like_neon at 5:08 AM on May 29, 2013