Can You Have Just a Jacket Made? Commissioning an Odd Jacket

Yes. A jacket commissioned on its own is one of the more sensible things we make, and there is nothing unusual about asking for one. It is called an odd jacket, it is cut and made exactly as the jacket in a suit is, and it starts at $1,250.

The question reaches us often enough to deserve a plain answer. Someone has a wardrobe of grey flannels and good denim and wants one jacket to put over them. Or two suits are already hanging up and the next useful garment is not a third.

What a jacket on its own is called

An odd jacket. Odd is a tailoring word for unpaired rather than a judgement on the garment, and it works the way odd trousers do from the other end. One garment, without its usual partner.

Within that, the two shapes worth knowing are the blazer, plain and usually navy and the more formal of the two, and the sport coat, patterned or textured and cut with more ease. If you are not yet certain which you are after, our piece on the difference between a suit jacket, a blazer and a sport coat sets the three side by side.

What it costs

An odd jacket starts at $1,250, fully bespoke and full canvas. From there the price is set by the cloth, and jacket cloth is chosen on a different basis from suiting, so the final number is given to you at the consultation with the bolt in your hands and the price of each cloth beside it.

The rest of the price card is worth having alongside it. A two-piece suit is priced at consultation and odd trousers are from $450. Our bespoke page carries the whole card, including the finer mills: Drago priced at consultation, Zegna and Holland & Sherry from $3,495, Loro Piana from $3,995.

Whatever the cloth, what is included does not change. Unlimited fittings, and a year of complimentary alterations. Fifty per cent at cloth selection, the balance on collection. A rush order carries a twenty-five per cent surcharge.

The making is identical

There is no lesser version of this. Every garment that leaves Mr James is full canvas and fully bespoke, cut to a pattern drafted for one person and made by hand by Max in our atelier in Southern Brittany, France. We do not offer made-to-measure at any price, so a jacket alone is not a cheaper way into the house. It is one garment instead of two.

The canvas matters more on an odd jacket than almost anywhere, because a jacket worn without its trousers is carrying the outfit on its own. Full canvas, half canvas and fused construction sets out what the floating layer of horsehair and wool does inside the chest, and why a glued jacket never moulds to anyone.

Choosing cloth for a jacket rather than a suit

This is the pleasure of the commission. A suit cloth has to behave. A jacket cloth gets to be interesting, because nothing has to match it. What we are asked for most:

• Hopsack. Open, faintly basket-woven, resilient, and it shrugs off creasing. The most useful navy jacket cloth there is, and the right answer for a first blazer.
• Tweed and flannel. The country cloths, patterned or softly napped. Handsome, and in Los Angeles genuinely a December to February proposition.
• Linen and linen blends. For summer and for the coast. Linen creases, which is the character of it rather than a fault.
• High-twist worsted. The yarn twisted harder before weaving, so the cloth sits more openly and wears cooler. It looks like business cloth and behaves like summer cloth.

Pattern is where most people hesitate. A busy jacket wants a quiet trouser beneath it, and our notes on stripes, checks and weaves cover how large a check can sensibly go. The front is the other decision worth taking slowly, since notch, peak or shawl reads differently on an odd jacket than on a suit.

What to wear it with

A jacket is only as useful as the trousers under it, which is why we often suggest a jacket and a pair of trousers in contrasting cloths rather than a jacket entirely alone. Grey flannel and a flat mid grey worsted will carry almost any jacket you own. Those are from $450, and the page for custom trousers Los Angeles covers the fit and the detailing.

Jackets for women, and how long it takes

The house dresses women as well as men, and a jacket on its own is commissioned here by women as readily as by men. The same pattern drawn from nothing, the same full canvas, the same cloth books.

Four to six weeks in domestic cloth, six to eight in imported Italian and English cloth, which takes two to three weeks longer to reach the atelier. We take around thirty measurements plus three photographs, front, side and back, so the way you stand is recorded rather than guessed at. Most clients have three fittings counting the consultation, and there is no limit.

Questions we are often asked

Can you make just a jacket, without trousers?

Yes, and it is a commission we are glad to take. It is called an odd jacket, and it is drafted, cut and made exactly as the jacket in a suit is.

How much does a custom blazer cost in Los Angeles?

An odd jacket at Mr James starts at $1,250, fully bespoke and full canvas. The final price is set by the cloth you choose, and you see the price of each cloth at the consultation before you commit.

What is an odd jacket?

A jacket worn with trousers it was not cut with. Odd means unpaired, not peculiar. A blazer and a sport coat are both odd jackets.

Can you make a jacket to go with trousers I already own?

Yes. Bring the trousers to the consultation and we will choose the jacket cloth against them in daylight rather than under showroom lighting. A plain grey flannel leaves the range wide open.

Should my first odd jacket be a blazer or a sport coat?

A navy blazer, for most people. It reaches further up the formality scale, and it carries grey, cream, tan and denim without argument. The sport coat makes a good second jacket, in a lighter cloth.

Is a jacket on its own made the same way as a suit jacket?

Identically. Full canvas, fully bespoke, your own pattern, made by hand in our atelier in France. There is no reduced version of it, and we do not offer made-to-measure at all.

How long does a bespoke jacket take?

Four to six weeks in domestic cloth and six to eight in imported cloth, the same as a suit, with unlimited fittings and a year of complimentary alterations.

Come and look at cloth

This is a decision much easier made with cloth in your hands than on a screen. The first consultation lasts an hour and costs nothing, and you will meet Robb or Ben. We will tell you honestly whether a jacket is the right commission or whether the money is better spent elsewhere.

We are at 221 Culver Blvd, Playa del Rey, CA 90293, with free parking in front and behind. Appointment only, seven days a week, roughly nine until six, with forty-eight hours' notice. Book a private consultation, or telephone 310-503-3592. If the drive is the obstacle we visit homes and offices anywhere in Los Angeles for $300.

More about the house is on our page for a custom tailor Los Angeles, or go straight to book a fitting.