Sleevehead: Look of the week: An urbanized safari jacket                                                          

Look of the week: An urbanized safari jacket

    Below is a beige Martin Margiela goatskin suede jacket, which caught my eye on Yoox.com. Essentially, Margiela has taken the cotton safari jacket, an iconic, perhaps even kitschy piece, and urbanized it by changing out the fabric and streamlining a few of the details. The result is a more flexible item of clothing since it seems a little out of place to wear an authentically detailed safari jacket in a large city, even if you are a NYC hipster lounging on a stoop in Williamsburg or the Lower East Side.

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But assuming Margiela's de-stylized and citified version of the safari jacket works for you and your surroundings, the next question is - what do you wear with it? Below are a couple of suggested variations, depending on the use case: downtown (East End) v. uptown (West End).

The jacket would go well with textured or denser cottons (i.e. finewale corduroy, moleskin or denim) or subtly patterned wool or flannel trousers in grey, brown or melange colors (like steel loden). These fabrics have a texture, weight and/or nap that naturally complements suede. Then wear a pair of sporty monk straps or loafers in a dark finish/color to complete the look.

Downtown or 'East End' variation

In the downtown variation, we're talking about weekend brunch at a quiet spot in NYC's West Village (or maybe London's Shoreditch or East End area), in the spring or autumn, when the weather is a bit cooler.

JW Brine corduroy trousers

3sixteen slim straight denim in raw grey

Uptown or 'West End' variation

The uptown scenario is a bit dressier in certain elements as the context might be daytime workwear (hence the wool trousers). I'm thinking more of the 'creative' professions like visual arts, design or media. For footwear, monk straps or perhaps a pair of calfskin leather slip-ons in black or dark oak.

Epaulet Walt grey birdseye

Epaulet Walt chocolate flannel

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