![Dress-pinstripe](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Dress-pinstripe.jpg)
Lapels ( ) are the folded flaps of cloth on the front of a
jacket or
coat below the collar and are most commonly found on formal clothing and
suit jackets. Usually they are formed by folding over the front edges of the jacket or coat and sewing them to the collar, an extra piece of fabric around the back of the neck.
There are three basic forms of lapels: notched, peaked, and shawl. Notched lapels, the most common, are usually seen on
business suit
A suit, lounge suit, or business suit is a set of clothes comprising a suit jacket and trousers of identical textiles worn with a collared dress shirt, necktie, and dress shoes. A skirt suit is similar, but with a matching skirt instead of t ...
s, and on more casual jackets like
blazer
A blazer is a type of jacket resembling a suit jacket, but cut more casually. A blazer is generally distinguished from a sport coat as a more formal garment and tailored from solid colour fabrics. Blazers often have naval-style metal buttons ...
s and
sport coat
A sport coat, also called a sport jacket (or sports coat or sports jacket in American English), is a men's smart casual lounge jacket designed to be worn on its own without matching trousers, traditionally for sporting purposes. Styles, fabrics, ...
s. Peaked lapels are more
formal, and nearly always used on double breasted jackets, but also frequently appear on single breasted ones.
[Flusser (2002). p. 85] Shawl lapels are usually carried by
tuxedo
Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element ...
s and
mess jacket
The mess jacket is a type of formal jacket that ends at the waist. It features either a non-fastening double breast cut or a single-breasted version that fastens. s.
[Antongiavanni (2006). p. 172]
Types of lapel
Notched lapel
![lapel comparison](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Lapel_comparison.jpg)
The notched lapel (American English), step lapel or step collar (British English) is sewn to the collar at an angle, creating a step effect. This is the standard on
single-breasted
A single-breasted garment is a coat, jacket, vest, or similar item having one column of buttons and a narrow overlap of fabric. In contrast, a double-breasted coat has a wider overlap and two parallel rows of buttons.
Single-breasted suit ja ...
suits, and is used on nearly all
suit jackets,
blazer
A blazer is a type of jacket resembling a suit jacket, but cut more casually. A blazer is generally distinguished from a sport coat as a more formal garment and tailored from solid colour fabrics. Blazers often have naval-style metal buttons ...
s, and
sports jacket
A sport coat, also called a sport jacket (or sports coat or sports jacket in American English), is a men's smart casual lounge jacket designed to be worn on its own without matching trousers, traditionally for sporting purposes. Styles, fabrics, ...
s. The notched lapel double-breasted jacket is a rare setting. The size of the notch can vary, and a small notch is sometimes called ''fishmouth''. This was the first type of lapel to appear and is the most common one.
Peaked lapel
The peaked lapel (American English), peak lapel, or pointed lapel (British English), is the most formal, featuring on
double-breasted
A double-breasted garment is a coat, jacket, waistcoat, or dress with wide, overlapping front flaps which has on its front two symmetrical columns of buttons; by contrast, a single-breasted item has a narrow overlap and only one column of butt ...
jackets,
all formal coats such as a
tailcoat
A tailcoat is a knee-length coat characterised by a rear section of the skirt, known as the ''tails'', with the front of the skirt cut away.
The tailcoat shares its historical origins in clothes cut for convenient horse riding in the Early Mode ...
or
morning coat, and also commonly with a tuxedo (both single and double breasted). In the late 1920s and 1930s, the single breasted peaked lapel jacket was considered a very stylish design. The feature was carried into day clothing by the increasing popularity of the peaked
dinner jacket
Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element ...
. The ability to cut peak lapels properly on a single-breasted suit is one of the most challenging tailoring tasks, even for very experienced tailors.
Shawl lapel
The shawl lapel, shawl collar, or roll collar is a continuous curve. Originally seen on the
Victorian smoking jacket
A smoking jacket is an informal men's style of lounge jacket originally intended for tobacco smoking, designed in the 1850s. A classic-styled smoking jacket comes in a shawl collar, turn-up cuffs, toggle or button fastenings, or simply be closed ...
, it is now most common on the dinner jacket or tuxedo.
This similarly began as informal eveningwear, and was then made in both more and less formal versions, depending on the situation in which it was to be used. It is also commonly used on
mess jacket
The mess jacket is a type of formal jacket that ends at the waist. It features either a non-fastening double breast cut or a single-breasted version that fastens. s. A
Teba jacket
A Teba jacket is a soft, single-breasted jacket, unpadded throughout the chest and shoulders, and featuring shirt-like sleeves, ventless backs, notchless lapels and patch pockets with flaps. It generally has four front buttons, either in leather o ...
sports a form of notch-less lapel that features an angular turn.
Lapel features
![Lapel Watch (USA), ca](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Lapel_Watch_%28USA%29%2C_ca._1889_%28CH_18497615%29.jpg)
Lapels have a
buttonhole on the left, which is intended to hold a
boutonnière
A boutonnière () or buttonhole (British English) is a floral decoration, typically a single flower or bud, worn on the lapel of a tuxedo or suit jacket.
While worn frequently in the past, boutonnières are now usually reserved for special oc ...
, a decorative flower. These are now only commonly seen at more formal events. To hold the flower properly, a loop is fixed to the back of the lapel. For symmetry, double breasted suits often have a button hole on each lapel. A
lapel pin
A lapel pin, also known as an enamel pin, is a small pin worn on clothing, often on the lapel of a jacket, attached to a bag, or displayed on a piece of fabric. Lapel pins can be ornamental or can indicate the wearer's affiliation with an organiza ...
is also sometimes worn.
The width of the lapel is a widely varying aspect of suits, and has changed widely over the years. Some designers maintain however that most stylish lapel width does not change, and that the lapel "should extend to just a fraction less than the halfway mark between the collar and shoulder line".
Origin
![Young Nelson](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Young_Nelson.jpg)
The most common style of lapel, the notched lapel, originated in older types of jackets that buttoned to the neck, by unbuttoning and turning back the upper part of the closure at an angle indoors or in hot weather, and then removing the upper buttons. The upper points are derived from the end corners of the collar. This can be duplicated by similarly turning back the closure in a modern button-to-the-neck garment such as an outdoor coat or a
boilersuit
A boilersuit (or boiler suit), also known as coveralls, is a loose fitting garment covering the whole body except for the head, hands and feet.
Terminology
The term ''boilersuit'' is most common in the UK, where the 1989 edition of the ''Oxfo ...
. Sometimes when caught outside in bad weather in a lapelled jacket and nothing over it, its wearer may unfold the lapels and hold them that way to temporarily reproduce the ancestral to-the-neck closure.
As tailcoats evolved rapidly among the wealthy during the
Regency period
The Regency era of British history officially spanned the years 1811 to 1820, though the term is commonly applied to the longer period between and 1837. King George III succumbed to mental illness in late 1810 and, by the Regency Act 1811, h ...
, various styles of closure saw popularity, from fastenings at the top, the middle, or even hanging open. The turn-down collar popular on earlier garments like the
frock
Frock has been used since Middle English as the name for an article of clothing, typically coat-like, for men and women.
Terminology
In British English and in Commonwealth countries the word may be used as an alternative term for a girl's or ...
was succeeded by long lapels folded down to below the waist (fashionably tightly nipped in). Invariably, there were long rows of buttons down the front, most of which did not fasten; in fact even into the late
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
, all frock coats had a long row of button holes on the lapel, long since obsolete. As buttoning styles changed, the loosely folded front of the coat correspondingly shifted shape, and the ''V'' then formed by the meeting of the fold and the collar continues now in the traditional shape of notched and peaked lapels, both of which originate from that period.
Once double breasted frock coats were established, lapels were sharply creased and their form was more static, varying only in details such as height, since they were buttoned nearly to the neck by the
Edwardian
The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...
s, then lengthened to the classic three-button shape, the two-button jacket being a further American innovation. The other significant change over that period was the use of the
revers
A revers or rever is a part of a garment that is reversed to display the lining or facing outside. The word is borrowed from French '' revers'', which is reflected in the final ''s'' being silent.
The most common form of revers is the lapel. T ...
in the construction of the lapel, as the Victorians used elaborate three-part patterns to cut a fold of cloth from the lining into the front of the lapel, a universal consideration of frock coats and dress coats of the period, but abandoned in favor of the current single-piece lapels at the same time as the switch to morning coats and lounge suits. Modern lapels are largely identical in form to their 1930s counterparts.
Some historians of dress such as
Bernard Rudofsky
Bernard Rudofsky (April 19, 1905 - March 12, 1988) was an Austrian American writer, architect, collector, teacher, designer, and social historian. His most notable work is '' Architecture Without Architects: A Short Introduction to Non-pedigreed A ...
have ridiculed the evolution of jacket lapels into "vastly unnecessary flaps" and "decorative rudiments",
[Rodofsky(1947). p. 122] while others have celebrated the transformation of lapels into "fetishes" as part and parcel of fashion as expression.
Lapelless jackets
Though less common among men's suits in the west, other jacket styles feature no lapels. Jackets with
mandarin collar
A mandarin collar, standing collar, band collar or choker collar is a short unfolded stand-up collar style on a shirt or jacket. The style derives its Western name from the mandarin bureaucrats in Qing-era China that employed it as part of th ...
s, also called stand collars, band collars, or choker collars, include
Nehru jacket
The Nehru jacket is a hip-length tailored coat for men or women, with a mandarin collar, and with its front modelled on the Indian achkan or sherwani, a garment worn by Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister of India from 1947 to 1964.
History ...
s and various military dress uniforms, such as the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
and
US Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through com ...
. Turndown collars, also called Prussian collars and ghillie collars, were once common on military uniforms and on the
Mao suit
The modern Chinese tunic suit is a style of male attire originally known in China as the Zhongshan suit () after the republican leader Sun Yat-sen (Sun Zhongshan). Sun Yat-sen introduced the style shortly after the founding of the Republic of ...
.
Notes
Bibliography
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*Whife, A.A (ed): ''The Modern Tailor Outfitter and Clothier''. The Caxton Publishing Company Ltd, London, 1951
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