Comme des Garçons Single Breasted Blazer

A Peter Pan collar is flat, rounded, and lies against the shoulders without a stand. It has no lapel, no roll, and no notch, which are the three things a blazer collar exists to have. Putting one on a single-breasted jacket therefore removes the entire vocabulary that tells you a garment is tailoring, and leaves the rest of the tailoring intact underneath it. Everything below the neck behaves properly: a real front, a real closure, a real shoulder. Everything at the neck belongs to a different kind of garment altogether, one associated with children’s clothes and with the 1920s, and the collision is the point. Cotton is the second decision and it matters as much. A wool jacket recovers from a crease overnight and a cotton one does not, so a cotton blazer accumulates a record of having been worn, and in beige that record is visible. That is not a flaw to be managed. A jacket that softens and creases and shows where the elbow goes is the version of tailoring that gets worn rather than kept.

Why we selected it

We wanted one jacket that was not trying to be serious. A Peter Pan collar on a properly built blazer is a joke told with a straight face, which is our favorite kind.

Taking a garment with settled rules and altering one of them is the main line’s oldest method, and this blazer changes exactly one thing and leaves everything else alone.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent cotton. Made in Japan. Single-breasted, tailored, with a Peter Pan collar. Color: beige.

Fit notes

Sized like a jacket, at the shoulder first. A flat collar sits differently from a lapel and shows more of what is underneath at the neck, so the shirt you wear with it is more visible than it would be under a notched collar. Cotton has no recovery, so this will soften and crease with wearing and will want pressing rather than hanging out.

Styling

With the Wide Crop Trouser, which is cut in the same beige cotton and is the obvious partner for it. Over the Ruffle Top for white at the collar. Over the Ruffle Chest Tank when the jacket should be the only structured thing.

Care

Cotton tailoring is best dry cleaned rather than washed, because washing a structured jacket disturbs the canvas and the shoulder whatever the cloth is made of. Press it rather than steaming it flat, and hang it on a shaped hanger. Our care guidance covers cotton in more detail.

Related pieces

The Asymmetrical Blazer is tailoring with its front moved off the center line. There is more on the house on the Comme des Garçons designer page. Everything we carry from Comme des Garçons is listed together.