5 Fashion Sins Men Commit With Blazers

Blazers are often considered along with things like white shirts and black slacks to be the foundation of stylish men's wardrobes. Essentially formal pieces, blazers have recently been discovered to have potential in casual outfits as well. Yet its that same formalness that opens the door to some truly egregious fashion errors with blazers.

Worn Out Blazers
Vintage boots look great vintage, while leather luggage look charming when scuffed and slightly damaged. Blazers, meanwhile, are very rarely appealing once they're worn and tired. In fact, wearing a darned or threadbare blazer is the surest way to look worn and tired yourself, assuming that's the kind of impression you want to make.

Extremely few blazers are highlighted by frays and darns throughout the construction, and even then they lose out on their formal status. If you're after the distressed and deconstructed look, there are other pieces that can send the message just as admirably.

Structure is a key element in almost every blazer in existence. Once your previously stiff and structured blazer starts sagging and going limp in all the wrong places, it's time to visit the tailor for a replacement. Go ahead and let your jeans get torn or your shirts get distressed, but your blazers should always go out looking the way they were made.

Busy Blazers
In the unfashionably experimental 90's, having brands on every stitch of clothing was the (literally) big thing. Fashion pundits now look with shame at those years, recognizing how ugly big brand prints and unnecessarily large logos could ruin even the finest piece of clothing.

The same thing goes for blazers. No matter how precise the tailoring or exquisite the fabric, having too many patches, prints and decals on it can ruin the whole thing. If any, keep visual details to just one small print or a single subtle design. Anything more than that will range from tacky to downright ugly, none of which can be good for your outfit.

Bad Fits
Not everything in men's fashion has to fit to a T. Shirts with an extra half inch usually aren't very obvious, and an excess inch in pants are hard to notice. Blazers, however, are not as lax with the style rules as most other articles of clothing.

Your blazer's shoulders should align exactly with yours, and the chest should allow you to button up without much effort. The jacket itself should nip a little at the waist and end somewhere around your seat. Be sure to ask the salesman at the store all the possible questions on fit and sizing. Better yet, you could invest a little more into your blazer and get it done right by a professional tailor.

It's not just about fashion or style. A blazer that fits well will also be much more comfy to wear, and that's a major factor if you plan to wear it for long periods of time.

Upturned Collars
Fashionable men everywhere winced when the frat boy style of wearing polo shirts, with the collar turned up or 'popped', took hold as a trend. Though an upturned collar is okay in very few cases with polo shirts, it's never a good thing to do with blazers unless you're outdoors and an actual chill to protect yourself from. Even then, you should put your collar and lapels back down as soon as you get indoors.

Shirt, Tie and... No Blazer?
As much as it's important to know when not to wear blazers (as with slippers or short-sleeve shirts, for example), you also have to be aware when it's absolutely necessary to put one on. Too many guys think that a shirt and necktie alone are fine, especially if it's just for the office. It's an eyesore waiting to happen.

By themselves, shirts are okay to wear even without a jacket on top of it. Once you wear a long-sleeve shirt with a necktie, it's time to take your jacket off the hanger. A shirt sans tie looks casual, but a shirt and tie without a jacket will always seem incomplete.