“He had on a double-breasted suit of the type then known as the pillbox; it was chalk-striped, pink on blue; the trousers hugged his ankles.”

― Saul Bellow, Seize the Day

The double-breasted suit has its origins to the British Navy’s naval reefer jacket, which resembles today’s peacoat. Sailors responsible for “reefing the sails” wore these jackets, which could be fasted across the chest to protect from water and wind. Officers quickly adopted an embellished version with gold buttons on navy cloth.

In the late 19th century, the double-breasted jacketjacket whose two sides overlap when closed - the right side transitioned from military utility to leisure wear. By the 1930s, its prominence grew with the introduction of the so-called “London Drape”, which was originally a suit design for Prince Edward, the Duke of Windsor. When we remember the double-breasted jackets of Hollywood’s Golden Era, this “London Drape” is what we recall.

The jacket is constructed most commonly in 6×2, 4×2, or 4×1 buttons configurations. Despite having so many buttons, the jacket is fastened with only two: one exterior and one interior “anchor button”, leaving the rest largely ornamental. The “anchor button” maintains the jacket’s structure, and the shape of the right lapel.

In terms of its construction, the sharp lapels of a double-breasted jacket, from the tip of a peaked lapel down to two crossed points at the waist, create the illusion of height. At the same time, the double row of buttons and the extra flap of cloth, however, create breadth. Combined, in the best cases the jacket achieves and almost architectural geometry.

Many new variations emerged over time, including a four-button design credited to the Duke of Kent––where the lapels come with a hefty roll, and only the bottom button is fastened––a look that resurfaced in the 80s, dominated by thick shoulders and a buttoning point below the natural waist. Designing for The Beatles in the late 1960s, tailors like Tommy Nutter brought the buttons up and closer together, creating a leaner figure. The 1990s saw a resurgence of the double breasted, led chiefly by Giorgio Armani’s reinterpretation. He introduced broader shoulders, an enhanced drape, kept a lowered buttoning point but brought it closer to the natural waist. And most strikingly perhaps, Armani dared to move away from the militaristic heritage by changing peak lapels for notch lapels.