Origin of the Odd Jacket

Origin of the Odd Jacket

My grandfather, the eponymous J. (Jacobi Press) was largely responsible for the so-called Odd Jacket (sport coat) in America. All because of World War I and its aftermath.

Beginning with the Guns Of August in 1914, Grandpa Press’s merchandise including tailoring materials, raincoats, Fedora hats, sweaters, shirts, neckwear, hosiery, were virtually all imported from the British Isles. The whole shebang.

He wanted to fill his stock long-term before the Kaiser closed it for him. In 1914 a salesman for a firm producing fine British woolens called on my grandfather to look at the line of hand-loomed tweed fabrics extremely popular in England at the time. The salesman had little luck in the early days of The Great War finding proper outlets in the United States for his line. He was thunderstruck that my grandfather bought his wares: J.Press was among the first in the custom tailor trade to import British cloths and a leader in that field, continuing post-World War II to do business with that first firm, based in Galashiels, Scotland.

 Jacobi Press knew how to entice Yale customers into his gabled York Street emporium and by now, no longer needed to knock on doors in the dormitories. The following ad appeared in a 1915 Yale Daily News and told the story:

ECONOMY ON CLOTHES
Not Inferior Clothes, BUT cheaper in price
Three reasons why ---
WE have a large college trade
WE own the building
WE do our own work
THEREFORE We can offer suits from
FIVE to TEN Dollars cheaper.
A call will convince you
A complete line of English Woolens. J. PRESS,
The Only Medium priced tailor at Yale.
 

As The First World War approached the circumstances in his ads changed.

ROTC Uniforms and Equipments
Ready Made and Custom Made
Our prices as usual are lowest
J. PRESS
Military Tailor

 

          After the war Jacobi Press returned to civilian priorities, becoming the first retailer to sell sport coats separate from trousers, usually blue flannel blazers sporting a college crest and monogrammed brass buttons. Shetland jackets that in the past he sold as tweed suits were now matched with grey flannels. He was the first custom tailor in New Haven who produced ready-made clothing, keeping his custom workrooms busy off-season converting the previous season’s inventory of custom fabrics into a ready-to-wear collection. The lingering characteristic of J. Press ready-to-wear is its derivation from custom clothing. My grandfather captured the loyalty of boarding schools with travel exhibits throughout the Northeast at St. Paul’s, St. Mark’s, Groton, Middlesex, often referred to as “the St. Grottlesex Elite” as well as Andover, Exeter, Hotchkiss, Taft, and Choate.

          He further enlarged his business with graduates after they left Yale. Salesmen who befriended their clients in New Haven took measurements and orders from customers in hotels across America. My grandfather also opened a showroom in New York in 1912 on Lower Broadway eventually becoming a more permanent fixture in midtown at Madison Avenue and

44th Street. Other branch stores followed on the first floor of the Delta Upsilon fraternity at Harvard, Nassau Street in Princeton and in my era, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

 Grandpa’s penchant outfitting undergraduates, alumni, and hangers on continues to this day with the recent opening of our gleaming emporium on 262 Elm Street around the corner from his original shop together with the J. Press Pennant shop at 501 Madison Avenue complementing our full-bodied Manhattan headquarters, adjacent to the Yale Club on Vanderbilt and 44th Street:

Boola Boola—Time Marches On

ブログに戻る

9件のコメント

I’m a New Havenite who purchased his first J. Press Pink Button Down Oxford…
with the Button Flap Pocket…in 1968…while home for Christmas from the“rural”
Southern Ohio College I was attending!
I it wore for the first time at Fraternity Rush Party to the astonishment of brethren…how outlandish…under our “Olive Drab Blazer” no less!…ultimately I explained to those who cared to listen that the Pink Shirt was after all
“The New Haven Look”!
Vincent DePillo
Westport, Connecticut

Vincent DePillo

I applaud the avoidance of euphemism and employment of the word “cheaper.” Not such a pejorative, I guess, back in those days. Of course, by the time one began shopping at the store on 44th Street, there was nothing “cheap” about J. Squeeze ….

Gerald Brecher

I have been a customer since the ‘50s Still miss your Hotel visits which could accommodate my XL needs.

John Wilharm

My father started mixing and matching in the 1930’s with the advent of white duck pants in the summer. He took to wearing a lightweight suit coat with a pair of white duck pants on Saturday nights and/or Sunday afternoons at the Shore Club.

Richard Pinto

’Great to hear a little more history on this topic. I was just reading the Sports Illustrated for the week of October 25, 1954, in which is an article titled “The Not So Odd Jacket”. They claimed 10 million odd jackets would be sold that year. Thank You Mr. Press! -s

Simon Shaffer

コメントを残す

コメントは公開前に承認される必要があることにご注意ください。