Jackets & Jeans: Menswear Combinations for Blazers, Sport Coats & Denim

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Wearing a structured jacket with jeans is a look that many men try to pull off. However, they both have dressy and casual silhouettes, so how should you combine them into stylish and harmonious looks? In this guide, we’ll discuss how to best wear sport coats, blazers, and jeans as outfits and why those will work best for you.

YouTube video

Pairing Jackets and Jeans

There are very different situations where you might be able to wear sport coats and blazers with jeans. You can also look at the different times where you might have seen someone on a semi-casual occasion, perhaps a business meeting or even going out on a date. Time after time, we’ve seen men pull out this outfit but only a few do it well.

Often, we see men think that it’s acceptable to wear any kind of jacket with any pair of jeans; and that will make an acceptable outfit.

Jackets and Jeans Outfit Combinations
Jackets and Jeans Outfit Combinations

jacket is inherently much more dressy than jeans. Jeans always look much more casual. So, you might be wondering how to best pair those together. In certain situations, this might look appropriate. The main reasons why it would not look appropriate, are usually due to both fit and the overall formality of the combination.

In this guide, we’re going to assume that you already have a well-tailored blazer or sport coat, and some great fitting jeans.

What Jacket Hallmarks Should You Look Out For?

Blazers are not a one-size or one-style-for-all-situations item. When selecting details to pair with jeans, you’ll want to look for things that are going to casualize the jacket as much as possible.

Fabric Weight

You would want to look at fabric weights that are going to look a little bit warmer and less like a suit fabric. Fabric weight for your jacket or sport coat is available in a number of different densities depending on the season, how you’re wearing it, and what outfit you’re trying to put together. It’s important for both your temperature, but also for your appearance, that you pay attention to the overall breathability and the weight of the fabric you choose to wear for your jacket or sport coat.

Choose the right fabric
You may check our Fabric Guide when choosing the best garment for your outfit.

Weather and Season

You also want to pay attention to the weather and what season you plan on wearing your sport coat; make sure that it seasonally matches and that you are comfortable. 

For example, in today’s video (and in Outfit #1 below), I’m wearing dark denim with a darker patterned mid-weight jacket; I can wear this at almost any season throughout the year. I’ve added the light sweater; it’s not super bulky, but it is able to be worn or an extra layering piece adds a little bit of color as well too. Mid-weight jackets are beneficial for a number of reasons, but I enjoy them because I’m able to wear them in almost any season throughout the year. In the summer months, you could try wearing a linen or a cotton jacket. This will be much more breathable, much more comfortable for you when it’s warmer outside.

Raphael wearing a linen jacket in a warm-weather ensemble
Try Linen Jackets During Summer Months

And when it gets to be a little bit cooler outside, you could try wearing something that’s going to keep you insulated, perhaps a tweed jacket or something a little bit warmer. This will help the overall outfit to look much more cohesive in that season. 

Pockets and Lapels

Things like elbow patches or contrasting buttons are the different details that will help casualize the overall outfit with the jeans. In addition, you can also look for things like patch pockets and notch lapels that will help casualize the overall outfit with your sport coat and jeans combination.

Notched Lapels
Notched Lapels

Jacket Details To Avoid

Unnecessary Flamboyance

One of the easiest ways to know what to look for is to know what to avoid, and one of the first things we’ll cover in this regard is unnecessary flamboyance.

Here at the Gentlemen’s Gazette, we certainly believe in you being able to express yourself and have a great time with your clothing, but we don’t want to cause an accident on the street! Unless the event you are attending calls for you to be able to wear a lot of extra flair, it’s usually best to operate with the philosophy of less is more.

Avoid unnecessary flamboyance
Avoid unnecessary flamboyance

Overly flamboyant things that we’d want to avoid, for example, would be some really large, bold patterns; perhaps something like paisley; really bright neon colors; even something in really shiny fabric. It doesn’t really add that nice, polished look that you would want to see when you put together your blazer or sport coat and your jeans.

Excessive Patterns

Patterns in smaller doses are much more acceptable. With a lot of excessive patterns, you would run the risk of becoming much more visually confusing to people in your presence. So, you should avoid wearing things like a bold pinstripe that maybe looks like it’s missing its suit pants, and you should also avoid things like a fast-fashion floral print jacket or something with a metallic fabric to it.

A brightly colored, checked jacket's would be too bold to pair with jeans
This jacket’s pattern would be too bold to pair with jeans

Poor Fit

The next thing to avoid will be a poor fit in your jacket or sport coat. It’s important that you focus on the overall fit for your body type when selecting your jacket. Don’t get too confused looking at the quality of the fabric or the costs on the price tag, all of that doesn’t matter if it doesn’t fit appropriately. It will end up looking much more sloppy.

Always mind your jacket's fit
Always mind your jacket’s fit

The goal is to casualize your jacket while elevating and dressing up your jeans, while still meeting in the middle so that things complement one another. Try to avoid different extremes that would make you look like you’re going to the boardroom or out to a club; that is not the purpose of this outfit.

How Should You Choose Your Jeans?

The goal here is to make sure that the jeans that we’re choosing to wear are going to look much dressier, as this is going to complement the jacket in general. So, what kind of cuts and details are you going to be looking for to be able to wear with your sport coat or blazer? 

Pay Attention to Your Body Type

You’re going to want to make sure that you are paying attention to your body type and finding something that fits you appropriately. There is a wide variety of details which you might be able to see regarding the jeans that you can choose to wear, and you can learn more about that from our guide here.

Dress for your body type
Dress for your body type

Match Your Jeans With Your Jacket

Once you’ve selected a fit that works best for your body type, it’s important to make sure that you find a sport coat or a blazer that complements the same style of denim you decide to wear. For example, in terms of fit, you don’t want to wear a slim fit jacket and really wide-cut jeans.

Pair your jacket with your dressiest jeans and brown shoes
The fit and formality of this jacket-and-jeans pairing is well executed

Denim Details to Avoid

In terms of the details on the jeans themselves, it’s important to remember that, again, less is more. Jeans, by nature, are going to look more casual, especially when you have things like whiskering or certain different types of embroidery. There are details on jeans that you would therefore want to avoid when selecting certain styles, to be able to match with your sport coat or blazer.

Distressed Jeans

Things that might signify a distressed jean would include heavy detailing, whiskering all over the leg, and holes in the knees. Things like these are not going to be something that you’ll want to wear with a sport coat or blazer. This is usually going to look much better when you’re out casually with a t-shirt, perhaps.

However, when we’re talking about jeans to be able to be worn with the blazer or sport coat, we’re usually not talking about distressed jeans.

Distressed jeans
An example of distressed jeans

Are there some people that are able to pull off a look of something with distressed jeans and sparkles and blazers? Yes, but typically these people are looking for more of a trendy look, not necessarily a timeless look.

The whole point of having distressed jeans is to give a very lived-in look to your outfit. However, when you blend this more casual aspect of the outfit with a more professional sport coat or blazer, the entire outfit starts to look much more incomplete and disjointed. So, for a timeless look, remember, it’s best to skip the distressed denim when worn with a blazer or sport coat.

Dark Washed Jeans
Dark Washed Jeans

A great example is what I’m wearing here. I’ve got a clean, dark-wash pair of jeans on with my blazer; no-frills, no whiskering on there at all, and it looks quite timeless.

Jeans That Are Too Tight

Another thing to avoid when trying this combination is jeans that are far too tight. There are some of us, like myself, who enjoy slim or tapered fit to their jeans, but the key is to make sure that you have got a fit that matches your body type, and that you’re finding something that ideally complements the overall look of your outfit.

Wear jeans that have a flattering fit.
Wear jeans that have a flattering fit.

Contrast Stitching

There are certain types of contrast stitching that are perfectly acceptable, and that will actually enhance the timelessness of your jeans, like the subtle yellow stitching you’ll commonly see on the seams of classic denim styles. However, we want to avoid the really loud, enhanced contrast stitching that you might see on more trendy jeans.

Avoid jeans with excessive contrast stitching
Avoid jeans with excessive contrast stitching

For example, we should avoid a contrast stitching that is really enhanced and ornate on the side seams of the jeans, and also on the back pockets of your jeans as well.

Jacket & Jeans Outfit Ideas

As we go through these outfits, we’re going to start out with the most formal option, and then work our way down to something a little bit more casual.

1. Professional & Casual

This is a timeless option that combines dark colors in a unique way, for a really polished and timeless look. This look combines wearing a dark-wash pair of jeans with leather dress boots and a neutral colored shirt, topped off with a navy jacket.

Navy Blazer with Cream Knit Long Sleeves, white dress shirt paired with dark wash denim jeans, black boots and Wine Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Orange Silk Wool Medallion Pocket Square from Fort Belvedere.
Navy Blazer with Cream Knit Long Sleeves, white dress shirt paired with dark wash denim jeans, black boots and Wine Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Orange Silk Wool Medallion Pocket Square from Fort Belvedere.

Another option could also be a gray jacket with dark-wash jeans. The neutrality of the colors used in this example ensures that you’ll appear professional yet still casual. This would be ideal for a business trip, or a meeting over lunch with colleagues.

2. Smart Casual

This look combines the best of both aspects of sport coats, blazers, and jeans into a smart casual look. It features a medium-wash pair of jeans with a lightweight sweater and a small-patterned blazer.

Kyle in a gray check blazer, dress shirt, pocket square, dark wash denim jeans, white sneakers
Gray check blazer, dress shirt, pocket square, dark wash denim jeans, white sneakers

Similar options to use would be a dark-wash pair of jeans and a neutral-colored sport coat, with a small- to medium-size pattern, over on neutral sweater. Why this works is that the outfit combination plays with the contrast of both the sport coat and the jeans. From there, using a sweater or cardigan under the sport coat, this relaxes the entire outfit but still allows you to appear distinguished.

3. Casual

This outfit is made with a dark-wash pair of jeans and white leather sneakers, a bold colored double-breasted jacket, and a neutral-colored sweater over a patterned shirt.

You can also try swapping out your bold-colored double-breasted jacket for a more pattern blazer or sport coat. This is certainly the most casual outfit out of the three that we’ve discussed so far, and it allows you to combine a few different elements of style while still giving you a single outfit that works in many situations.

Kyle in Olive Green Double Breasted Blazer, Navy Grid Shirt, Cream Knit Long Sleeves, Dark Washed Denim Pants, and White Sneakers
Olive Green Double Breasted Blazer, Navy Grid Shirt, Cream Knit Long Sleeves, Dark Washed Denim Pants, and White Sneakers

Conclusion

While pairing a blazer or sport coat with jeans seems like a very easy thing to do at first, it’s important to remember that if the formality or casualness of the ensemble is not working together, your overall outfit will look mismatched. Get a handle on the details we’ve discussed today, though, and you” be able to wear your jacket-and-jean ensembles in many different situations!

How do your pair your jackets with jeans? Share with us in the comments.

Outfit Rundown

I’m wearing a sport coat and jean combination, this includes a really dark based gray jacket with some really unique blue and leather gray tones inside of it, and some really cool brown horn buttons, the dark wash jeans are a slim fit that I got from J.Crew, and then I’m wearing black brogue dress boots.

Kyle in a sport coat and jeans casual outfit combination (Pictured: Pale Green Rabbits on Mid Blue Silk Wool Pocket Square from Fort Belvedere)
Kyle in a sport coat and jeans casual outfit combination (Pictured: Pale Green Rabbits on Mid Blue Silk Wool Pocket Square from Fort Belvedere)

To brighten things up, I’m wearing an oatmeal-colored sweater over a white slim fit dress shirt as well. My pocket square pulls it all together. It’s from Fort Belvedere and it’s got some really unique rabbit motifs and a blue tone with some really great green elements to it as well.

Reader Comments

    1. The sport coat with jeans look is right down my alley however I wasn’t feeling those run down looking black boots with the jeans cuffed. That was not cool

  1. Sorry but the white sneakers ruined the looks for me. As did the use of skinny jeans right after you mentioned making sure your jeans aren’t too skinny, and fit properly. I’ve worn blazers and sport coats in combination with jeans for years, and have to say this article missed the mark for me.

  2. Now I really feel old. (Going on 80). Your statement that โ€˜jeansโ€™ worn with a jacket grew popular several recent decades past needs modification. Many of us old boys used to school where Jackets and ties were required. As rebellious teens, back in the 50โ€™s into the 60โ€™s we obliged the Headmasters. We wore Levis ( not ripped or torn, yet not so new as to be called โ€˜Mom Jeansโ€™.) Cuffs, if at all were 1/8 inch. Weejuns or Leather boat shoes or blue canvas dock shoes. Jackets and ties had to look like they were given at least 2 seconds of thought while racing out the dorm room.. I have described what we wore to school 60-65 years ago. If the jacket was too nice, the kids would think โ€˜mom advised youโ€™. It was also โ€˜fashionableโ€™ for weekend spectator wear at football games. Cool!

  3. A golf jacket or bomber jacket yes with jeans; a sport coat or blazer never! So incongruous.

  4. You are showing jeans that are bunched up causing wrinkles — worse than just wrinkles. I don’t get it. The same look at jeans that are too long and bunch up at the ankles. Is this really the look you like?

    1. Spot on Mark!
      Raphael has admonished many times about trousers/pants of any kind that “puddle*” at the ankle and he’s right.
      James Dean & Clint Eastwood folded ’em up or just buy the proper fit and length.

      Rgds/JL

  5. White trainers and turn-ups, really? This isn’t a look men would or should wear, this is something a teenager at best should wear, I fear you have missed the mark with this article sorry chaps.

  6. I have unsubscribed; with the constant self-references and shameless promotion, this piece confirms my disappointment.

  7. I have to agree with comments on skinny and wrinkled jeans. Plus the self promotion is a disappointment. Iโ€™am too old for some of these ideas at 73.

  8. Looks like commenters “dungaree” with the propositions set forth in this article. Can’t win ’em all.

  9. Thanks Sven,
    For the article that gave me some new ideas. I find a pocket square is an ideal link between blazer & jeans. For some jackets I use just a grey rough linen pocket square that nicely matches the casualness of a pair of jeans.
    BTY: I don’t think the promotion is overdone – in the end something’s got to fill the fridge…

  10. Great post Kyle,
    Wow! What an array of comments….
    I only wear tweeds jackets, t-neck sweaters and Clark D Boots with well-worn (not tattered) jeans in late Fall – Winter.
    I have an “old” friend (70’s)from Maine 6’4″190’s, shock of gray hair – sports a Brit/fit, heavy, true navy flannel blazer with all the bells and whistles. Crisp pressed white shirt. Also a white points up pocket square for Sunday brunch (Yep, this guy’s a lady/girl killer!)
    In Summer he wears a very old unconstructed,
    very faded Madras jacket, bright yellow shirt with his jeans with well-cared for Bass penny loafers.
    One final note – why wear any jacket/blazer buttoned with while wearing jeans?

    Best/JL

  11. Thank You very much for a very informative presentation.
    Although I don’t quite agree with all of your comments, you did clarify a few nagging questions that I had.
    I have in the past often times wanted to “dress down” a little particularly at backyard Bar-B-Ques where jeans are the dress du jour, and sporting a casual jacket does just raise you a bit above the crowd!
    Thank You

  12. Don’t get me wrong, I like the whole jeans and jacket combo look. Its just that I’m a big guy and the fit has to be a bit loose. These ideas has the jean to be a bit tight. I don’t know, maybe it’s me and my age…

    *my 2 cents.

  13. Ok, but what about a dark blue jacket patterned with a lighther blue (or the opposite), very light blue jeans an a good pair of shoes for the summer.

  14. Thanks Kyle for an informative article on this modern sartorial development. Perhaps a mention of the difference in fabric weight between worsted wool, which most lounge suits seem to use, and denim to inform the choice of jacket material. Flannel wool, tweed, unlined corduroy, or lined linen work with dark denim and well polished brogues in a colour other than black.

    1. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us! We’ll keep those in mind. :)

  15. I think you need to have the proper build to pull off tight jeans with a jacket. Looks kind of odd bunching up at the boot top.
    Can you explain?

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