Style: Full Mettle Jacket

Hugo Boss Blazer | BCBusiness

Whether you call them sports coats or blazers, they are a business staple. Make it count

By the time August rolls around, you’re officially on the clock to making summer count. Unfortunately, shutting down for three weeks isn’t an option (unless you’re French).

That said, sultry weather tends to loosen the rules (and ties) of conventional business attire. Rumpled linen jackets replace heavy gabardine sports coats resulting in a more laid-back, slightly rakish look. Light cottons and silks offer structure while still keeping their cool, and everyone benefits from an injection of bright colour. This summer the hot hue is orange, whether in a crisp shade of nectarine, a shocking persimmon, a spicy mango or a muted earth tone. Any evidence is purely anecdotal, but there must be a correlation between business and bright colours. How else to explain the billion-dollar deals sealed with a handshake on the golf course? And, if you can’t bring a little outdoors into the office at summer’s end, then what have you been working for all year?  

ABOVE Men’s Hugo Boss linen jacket, ($695, harryrosen.com).

LEFT Women’s cotton jacket,($18, topshop.com).

MIDDLE Men’s Tombolini linen jacket, ($1,230, qvorvm.com).

RIGHT Women’s Gianfranco ferré silk jacket, ($2,635, vetrina.ca).