Capitol Hill Clothiers Custom Jacket Breakdown
There are near-infinite options for customizing a jacket from Capitol Hill Clothiers. From a custom-designed lining to any-color accent stitching, the world is your oyster. In this post, we’ll go through one of our client’s jackets and why each design and customization choice was made!
The Overall Jacket
This jacket was made from a gorgeous 9.5oz 100% Italian merino wool from Loro Piana’s Zelander natural stretch collection. This client wanted a versatile year-round sport coat that could work with jeans or slacks and wasn’t too “old man”. This plaid patterned brown with an almost blueish light gray contrast was one of the first fabrics I laid out to satisfy this need and he loved it! It’s a wonderfully lightweight fabric that works during the daytime or the evening, at any level of formality expected in his life, any time of year.
Other Lining Details
Inside this custom lining, we also placed a hidden cell phone pocket. If you’ve kept your cell phone in your jacket before, you’ll know that it often creates an unflattering bulge in the front and weighs down one side of the jacket. By adding a hidden pocket, the client’s phone can be placed securely inside his jacket and lay flush with his side, removing the bulge, carrying the phone’s weight under the armhole, and making for a more comfortable and functional jacket. There is also a strap that connects the rear vents and prevents them from opening when seated. This maintains the sleek silhouette of the garment!
The Stitching
There are many options for customizing the stitching on a jacket from Capitol Hill Clothiers. This means any client can be as subtle or as bold as they want to be. In this instance, the client opted for a subtle Columbia Stitch on the edges of the lining to create a color gradient between the darker brown jacket fabric and the lighter tan lining fabric base. He also chose a blue contrast stitch on the last buttonhole of his functional sleeve cuffs. This option helps to show that a jacket is custom-made without being too loud about it. Other stitching options include a picked stitch along the lapel or a contrasting lapel buttonhole.
The Lining
There are zero limitations on what visuals can be placed on a Capitol Hill Clothiers jacket lining. As a fan of Irish whiskey myself, I was ecstatic when this client chose to feature a few of his favorite whiskey brands inside this jacket. Every Capitol Hill Clothiers lining is custom-designed for each client’s taste and to match or complement the jacket fabric. The background color was selected to provide contrast with the bottles but still keep the brown theme of the jacket itself. The bottles were selected and organized to fit in a repeating pattern. Fun fact: The custom lining also appears inside the jacket’s chest pocket so it can be flipped up as a custom pocket square!
The Embroidery
Every client has different preferences for their embroidery and this one decided to place his initials inside the jacket above the Loro Piana fabric tag and the nickname “Bird” behind the collar on a boldly contrasting light blue felt that further brings out the blue tones in the jacket’s pattern. There are no limitations on what can be embroidered into a custom jacket, so if you’re thinking of scheduling a fitting, get creative and think of what you’d like your jacket to say about you - Literally!
The Lapels
This customer is about 6’5” and has broad shoulders with a more narrow waist. Based on this body symmetry, he and I agreed on a lapel width that would hit the “Goldilocks ratio” of not too wide and not too skinny. Hitting this ratio means that the lapel will be adequate for drawing attention upward and creating a flattering silhouette for his body type and size. Because of its intended use case in more business casual environments, he selected a notched lapel for this jacket. Capitol Hill Clothiers notched lapel jackets also come with a removable “storm tab” in the same fabric as the jacket itself for an added bit of flair and functionality.
The Buttons
Buttons are a surprisingly tough decision to make for a custom jacket. Generally speaking, sport coat buttons are meant to contrast the jacket’s fabric to show that it’s not just a suit jacket if worn with contrasting pants. There is no official “Goldilocks ratio” to hit here, but I love being able to create versatility in a jacket by using buttons that both match AND contrast the jacket fabric. If this fabric were sold off the rack as a suit, it would likely have a flat medium to dark brown button to be as understated as possible. In this case, we opted for beautiful tortoiseshell buttons to achieve the brown but also stand out more. If this customer wanted to have pants made in the same fabric, he could wear this jacket effortlessly as a part of a suit or just as a sport coat with no stylistic issues.
