Notch, Peak or Shawl: How to Choose a Suit Lapel

Of all the decisions taken at a first consultation, the lapel is the one most people think least about and everyone else notices first. It is a small piece of folded cloth. It is also the shape the eye travels along when it reads a jacket, and the detail that quietly dates a suit or keeps it looking right for twenty years.

Off the peg the choice is made for you, because the rail only had one kind. When a jacket is cut from your own pattern, the choice is yours.

What a lapel is, and why it has a shape at all

The lapel is the front edge of the jacket folded back on itself. It begins at the collar and runs down to the top button. The seam where collar meets lapel is called the gorge, and the shape of the lapel where it arrives at that seam is what gives each style its name. Everything else is a matter of degree. There are three shapes in ordinary use.

The notch lapel

The notch is the familiar one, with a small step cut out where the collar meets the lapel. It is the standard on single-breasted business suits and on odd jackets, for a good reason. It is quiet. It does not announce anything on behalf of the person wearing it, which leaves them free to do that themselves.

If you are ordering a first suit, in navy or charcoal, for work and for most of the occasions that are not weddings, a notch lapel is nearly always the right answer. The restraint is the point, and it is why a well cut notch lapel from 1960 still looks correct today.

The peak lapel

On a peak lapel the points sweep upward toward the shoulder instead of stepping away from the collar. It comes down to us from the morning coat and from the double-breasted jacket, where it has always been standard, and it carries a little of that formality with it.

What it does to the body is simple and genuinely useful. The upward line carries the eye out and up across the chest, so the shoulders read broader and the torso longer. On a slight frame it adds presence, on a shorter frame height. On someone already very broad it can be too much of a good thing, and we usually narrow the peak rather than abandon the shape.

A single-breasted suit with peak lapels is a deliberate choice. Cut well, it is one of the most elegant things in tailoring. Cut without thought, it looks like a jacket borrowed from a wedding. If it is the double-breasted jacket itself you are weighing rather than the lapel on it, we have set out how the two fronts compare and which one to order first.

The shawl collar

The shawl has no notch and no peak. Collar and lapel run into one another in a single unbroken curve. It came out of the Victorian smoking jacket and has stayed where it belongs, in the evening, on dinner jackets faced in silk or grosgrain.

It is the softest of the three shapes, which makes it kind to an angular face and less kind to a round one. Worth knowing before you commit a dinner suit to it. If you are weighing a shawl against a peak for black tie, our page on custom tuxedos and black tie sets out where each one sits.

Width is what dates a jacket, not shape

Lapel shapes do not really go out of fashion. Widths do, and without mercy. The very narrow lapels of the early 2010s now read as a particular year rather than as a suit, and the very wide ones of the 1970s read as a costume. Neither was badly made. Both were cut to a width that belonged to a moment.

The width that ages well is the one in proportion to the person wearing it. As a rule we cut a lapel reaching roughly halfway between the collar seam and the shoulder seam, then adjust from there. A broad chest carries a little more, a slight frame a little less. One useful check in a mirror: your tie should be close to the same width as the lapel at its widest point. If the two disagree, it is usually the tie that is wrong.

The gorge, the belly and the buttonhole

Three smaller decisions sit alongside the shape. The gorge is the height at which collar meets lapel. A higher gorge lifts the front of the jacket and lengthens the line of the body. A lower gorge is calmer and more traditional. The difference is about an inch of cloth, and it changes a jacket more than most people would believe.

The belly is the curve along the outer edge of the lapel. A straight edge reads modern and sharp, a gentle convex belly English and a little warmer. Neither is correct.

The buttonhole on the left lapel is for a flower, and it deserves to be real. We cut it as a working hole, finished by hand, with a small thread keeper behind the lapel to hold the stem. Because every jacket we make is full canvas, the lapel rolls over the canvas rather than being pressed flat into a crease. That roll is the clearest sign of how a jacket was built.

Choosing for your own frame

Some rough starting points.

• A slight build, or a shorter frame: a peak lapel of moderate width, with the gorge raised a little.
• Broad shoulders and a full chest: a notch of generous width, with the gorge kept low.
• A long neck: a lower gorge, which shortens the run of open shirt above the lapel.
• A round face: a peak, because straight lines balance curves.
• A first suit for work: a notch of medium width. Nothing in it to argue with.

None of this is law. It is where the conversation starts, and it usually ends somewhere else once a jacket is held up against you.

Seeing all three before you decide

A lapel is hard to judge on a screen. Photographs flatten the roll, the gorge and the belly, which are precisely the things that make one lapel look better on you than another. In a consultation we put the shapes in front of you on finished jackets, hold your cloth against them and watch what happens to your shoulders.

The consultation runs an hour, it is free, and you will sit with Robb or Ben rather than with a salesperson. The cloths, the process and the prices are all set out on our bespoke tailoring page, and you can book a time at calendly.com/info-robbp/bespoke-mr-james-fitting. We are at 221 Culver Blvd in Playa del Rey, open Monday to Sunday by appointment, and we ask for 48 hours' notice.

Questions we are often asked

Can a notch lapel be changed to a peak lapel later?

No. The lapel shape is cut into the front panel of the jacket, so there is no spare material to make points from. A lapel can sometimes be narrowed slightly if the cloth and the buttonhole allow it, but the shape is decided at cutting and stays decided.

Does lapel width go in and out of fashion?

The width does and the shape does not. Very narrow lapels now read as the early 2010s and very wide ones as the 1970s, though neither was badly made. The width that ages is the one in proportion to the man wearing it, which is why we propose one against your own chest and shoulders rather than following a year. One check you can make in a mirror: a tie should be close to the width of the lapel at its widest point, and when the two disagree it is usually the tie that is wrong.

Are peak lapels too formal for the office?

Not at all, although they are more emphatic than a notch. In navy or mid grey, at a medium width, a peak reads as considered rather than dressy and sits perfectly well in a meeting. If your work is conservative, order a notch for the first suit and a peak for the second.

Which lapel suits a double-breasted jacket?

A peak, as a matter of course. The double-breasted front and the upward sweep of a peak were made for one another, and the peak carries the eye across the wide overlap in a way a notch does not. A notch on a double-breasted jacket is not unknown, and it tends to look uncertain. If the front itself is still an open question, our notes on double-breasted or single-breasted go through it.

When is a shawl collar the right choice?

In the evening, on a dinner jacket, and almost nowhere else. The unbroken curve belongs to black tie and looks out of place on a business suit. Between a shawl and a peak for a dinner jacket, the shawl is the softer of the two, which suits an angular face and does rather less for a round one. A fully bespoke tuxedo starts at $1,795, and we will hold both shapes against you before anything is cut.

What lapel width should I ask for?

You do not need to arrive with a number. We measure the chest and shoulders, propose a width in proportion to them and show it to you before anything is cut. If you like a figure to hold, most of the lapels we cut fall between three and three and a half inches at the widest point.