The Ultimate Festive Velvet Jackets

The Nehru is a variation of the Jodhpuri which is in itself an evolution from the Angarkha, a type of three-quarter length wrap commonly worn in India. The jacket of course gets its name from Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first independent Prime Minister, but it's something of a red herring. Nehru the man never wore Nehru the jacket. He always favoured the longer and more traditional version called an 'achkan'. Ostensibly the same other than the length, Western culture preferred the short version and so pinned the style on Nehru. The name stuck.The jacket began to be marketed as the Nehru jacket in Europe and America in the mid 1960s, with its popularity catalysed by the likes of the Beatles who took to wearing it during their respective 'looking East' period. 

Back to today, we think it's a marvellous garment and a fantastic option for evenings when smart and casual lines are blurred. It feels dressed up, but can easily be dressed down with a pair of jeans. Worn with a crisp white shirt, it becomes formal, but add a silk neckerchief and it changes once again into something you could wear during the day. If you've never tried on a Nehru jacket, we'd thoroughly recommend you drop into our Pall Mall store and try one on. You might just find it becomes your favourite jacket of all.

The Smoking Jacket

There is a quote in Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer that seems to perfectly sum up the spirit of the smoking jacket:

“It's beautiful to have a smoking jacket, a good cigar and a wife who plays the piano. So relaxing. So lenitive. Between the acts you go out for a smoke and a breath of fresh air.”

One of the more iconic pieces of traditional menswear, the smoking jacket has evolved from a functional frock coat to what it is today - a sort of pseudo ceremonial lounge jacket for formal evenings, or conversely, whiling an evening away at home with a fine Sancho Panza and a nip of Louis XIII. While its original purpose may have changed along with the general lung health of the population, the smoking jacket is no less loved because there is simply nothing quite like it. Part robe, part blazer, part warm loving hug from an old friend, it is the difference between a good sartorial wardrobe and a splendid one, and it comes into its own this time of year.

It wasn't until 1865 that the smoking jacket ceased to be a purely functional garment and took on a style vocation all of its own, thanks in large part to Edward VII the Prince of Wales who commissioned Henry Poole & Co. of Savile Row to craft him a blue silk smoking jacket that he needn't take off at meals. Since then the smoking jacket has ridden waves of popularity, sliding into the mainstream on the back of Dean Martin and Fred Astaire (the latter of whom was buried in his favourite smoking jacket), but really always remaining on the periphery of fashion. As the world became increasingly more casual from the 60s onwards, the smoking jacket maintained a quiet but secured stance in the higher echelons of society until the 90s when Tom Ford repopularised it and every celebrity worth his salt was turning up to gala events in one. 

Today, the smoking jacket is once again charmingly assured yet discreet. Its original functionality has all but disappeared and so is now more of a ceremonial proposition. One can wear a smoking jacket in place of a dinner jacket for formal evening events for example; at smart dinners; or one can be unapologetically decadent and wear it around the house in the evenings. At Favourbrook, we have a number of different smoking jacket styles to suit each different occasion.

For example, smoking jackets with frogging details are perhaps best suited to more formal events, whereas smoking jackets with more of a DJ one-button front are more versatile. The double-breasted velvet smoking jacket with frogging details is perhaps the pinnacle of formal smoking jackets. Who can resist that elegant sweep of silk grosgrain lapel, perfectly framing the face? If you want to make a statement this season, and every other season for that matter, the smoking jacket will be your most trusted accomplice.

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