Glencheck Worsted Sport Coat With Red and Blue

Menswear connoisseurs know the term spezzato in reference to the inimitable way Italian men split up a suit, wearing the trousers from one and the jacket from another with seemingly effortless style. But since executing it well can be challenging, here are some reflections on what spezzato means and some of its do's and don'ts, so that you can split up your suits with style!

What Does Spezzato Mean?

The Italian term spezzato–not to be confused with the other Italian "s-words" in menswear, sprezzatura and scorpacciata–literally means "broken," and the same word is used for a broken heart or a broken arm, suggesting the risk involved. Spezzatois an advanced sartorial technique that involves mixing the jacket (and perhaps a matching vest) from one suit with the pants of another.

Although there isn't a formal distinction, there are really two approaches to doing this. One, which is more difficult to pull off, boldly flaunts the idea that you are mismatching two suits and makes this a strong style statement.

The other, which is more subtle and therefore easier to do, disguises the parts of two suits to make it look like you're wearing a sport coat and odd trousers. Looking online, you'll sometimes see outfits labeled #spezzato that are really just a sport coat and pants.

While we could say that anytime you do this you are creating a "broken" look, strictly speaking, you'd have to be using pieces from two different suits. So, a distinction should be made between the two.

Paulluxsartoria wearing a brown Dalcuore suit jacket as a separate with beige pants

Both may be done to expand a small wardrobe, which is desirable for those who are just starting out in the world of tailoring. So, if you only have three suits–navy, gray and brown, for example–you could potentially make six combinations, such as navy with gray pants, gray with navy pants, brown with navy pants, and so on.

Either approach accomplishes this, with the difference being how obvious you want to make the spezzatoeffect.

Chris Lee experimenting with spezzato. Would he do it again? Maybe, maybe not, he says.

Lately, however, the meaning ofspezzatohas expanded to include a third concept: wearing the accouterments of a suit on top, including tie and optional waistcoat (two pieces of a three-piece), with something casual on the bottom—jeans, cargo pants, or (brace yourself!) shorts.

This expanded definition is not surprising since it's an even more extreme form of intentional mismatching, so the label "broken" is especially apropos.

How to Pull OffSpezzato Successfully: 1. Avoid Formal Suiting Looks

More formal suit jackets–those that are structured, with padded shoulders, peak lapels, full canvassing, or flap pockets–don't usually look good with another color of pants. They immediately shout "suit," so splitting them just looks wrong unless you want to call attention to the use of spezzato, in which case it doesn't matter.

A formal, DB navy suit is best worn as a suit

In terms of materials, worsted wool can also be difficult for the same reason. You can combine the parts from two solids, but a patterned worsted, like a glen check, is tricky because once separated, the pieces will look orphaned.

Davide Baroncini in mid brown glen check suit with blue overcoat & shoes

A chalk stripe is best worn as a full suit. A pinstripe suit is particularly difficult to split up, first because stripes are so well known as part of a power suit and rarely seen on odd jackets except for regatta blazers. Secondly, stripes, especially smaller ones, look best when they run head to toe without interruption.

Chalk stripe suit with navy tie and White Irish Linen Embroidered Contrast Framing Pocket square

The top half of windowpane or houndstooth suits, on the other hand, are great candidates for spezzatosince there are many sport coats out there in these patterns, and they don't emphasize vertical lines.

Houndstooth and Windowpane jackets "broken" and paired with contrasting pants

The best suit jackets for dividing are therefore those that look like sport coats, bearing patch pockets and unstructured "natural" shoulders, appropriate patterns, and perhaps some texture.

2. Choose Compatible Fabrics

The next key to mixing and matching parts of two suits, besides making sure you have colors that coordinate, is choosing materials that work together.

The Hogtown Rake demonstrates how to match fabric weights with an SB blazer and khakis

Seasonality is an obvious consideration–you wouldn't mix a summer wool-silk-linen jacket with moleskin pants. Instead, combine jackets and pants of roughly the same weight. The safest bet is the same sort of fabric, which you can sometimes find as "suit separates."

For instance, if your jacket and trousers are both the classic worsted of a business suit, you can pair them up, but mixing worsted with flannel may be less successful, and linen pants with worsted even less so. In fact, worsted tends only to look good with worsted because of the expectations that this fabric will be part of a suit.

Raphael Employing Spezzato with a Suit Jacket and Matching Vest with Contrasting Yellow Pants and Brown Oxfords (Paisley Madder Tie from Fort Belvedere)

Fort Belvedere

Madder Silk Tie in Blue with Buff and Red Paisley – Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Soft White Cotton Flannel Pocket Square with handrolled Periwinkle Blue X-stitch edges – Fort Belvedere

On the other hand, if you want to go for a sport coat and pants look, you can do more fabric mixing, since you would normally combine a linen sport coat with cotton pants, not another linen, to give just one example.

3. Choose Similar Fits

We tend to think of suit fits in terms of slim or classic fits. For a successfulspezzatoit's essential that you not mix the two, for instance by wearing a fitted jacket with pants that have wider legs or a jacket that is full in the chest with narrow-leg trousers. The result would be a sense of imbalance, making you look either more slight or more top-heavy.

Brown and blue worn as spezzato in a similar fit

4. Create Enough Contrast

Once again, use the principles of how you would pair a sport coat and odd trousers: if you do spezzato, you don't want to mix two hues that are too similar. It shouldn't look like you were trying to match but failed. Make it obvious that top and bottom are separated.

The shades of gray between jacket and trousers here aren't quite different enough to look successfully mismatched, despite the trousers' pattern.

Usually, you would do this with coordinating colors, like the aforementioned brown and blue, but you can also do it with tones from the same color family like the full range of browns and tans or shades of gray.

An example of spezzato working with varying shades of brown, using a brown suit jacket and khaki chinos (accessories, including knit tie, from Fort Belvedere)

Fort Belvedere

Knit Tie in Solid Red Silk – Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Off White Rabbits on Wine Red Silk Wool Pocket Square – Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Light Lavender Geranium Silk Boutonniere Lapel Pin Flower Fort Belvedere

Many men find wearing the darker tone on top to be easier (brown jacket with beige pants), but with something like charcoal and light gray you can go either way, and with navy and sky blue, more often than not you'd go with the navy for your pants. To increase contrast even further, use an appropriately patterned suit jacket with solid trousers.

5. Use a Unifying Color to Tie Pieces Together

One way to integrate the whole of your look while using parts of two suits is to choose one piece that has the color of the other. Usually, this would mean solid pants with a suit jacket containing a pattern in the same color as the pants, such as blue trousers with a gray jacket that contains a blue windowpane.

The blue grid pattern in this jacket connects the top of the outfit to the bottom

The inclusion of the pants color in the jacket visually binds the top and bottom halves. You can do it the opposite way too, but patterned pants are rarer.

6. Realize that Spezzato is Meant to be Casual

Your goal in using thespezzatotechnique is always making a suit more casual. As soon as you break up the uniformity of a suit, it is less formal, just as a sport coat and pants are less formal. If you do the very modern thing of casual pants with a suit jacket, this is even more obvious.

Pedro Mendes in summer blue jacket with a pink flowery pocket square, a white OCBD shirt, sky blue chinos, and tan oxfords

Given the emphasis on dressing down, the rest of your outfit can go along with this idea by including monk straps or loafers instead of oxford shoes, a denim or OCBD shirt or other elements of sprezzatura.

Raphael wearing a denim shirt with a suit jacket and chinos

On the other hand, if you are in a professional environment or going for a job interview, realize that dressing for the occasion means wearing a standard suit rather than experimenting with breaking it up. Remember, there is a place and time for everything.

AdvancedSpezzato Techniques: 1. Using Three Pieces

Spezzatois already an advanced technique, but there are a couple of ways to break up a suit that push the envelope of classic style even further.

When the vest from a three-piece suit is involved, there are several options for mixing, both of which make it impossible to avoid the impression that you have divided a suit. The first method is to wear the vest and pants of a suit with the jacket from another suit. This is an interesting look that gives you a uniform appearance "up the middle."

Advanced Spezzato: Corduroy vest and matching trousers paired with tassel loafers and a suede jacket

The second is to wear a jacket and vest from the same suit with different pants. The sense of division between top and bottom is strongly emphasized here, especially if you wear two different textures.

Lastly, you can takespezzatoto what may be its furthest extreme by mixing and matching the pieces from three different suits: a jacket from one, a vest from another, and pants from a third.

An outfit with jacket, pants, and vest from three different suits.

This gives you the most stylistic flexibility and can generate looks that are quite complex, but, similar to matching multiple patterns in an outfit, it has a high risk of failure, requiring a sophisticated eye for what looks good and a willingness to stand out boldly.

2. Not Recommended: Wearing Casual Pants with a Suit Jacket

A common practice when breaking up a suit is one that also breaks with classic style by wearing casual pants with a suit jacket, usually a pair of chinos or jeans. Many Gentleman's Gazette readers will scorn the idea, but we've included it for the sake of complete coverage.

How not to do spezzato: Ralph Lauren in evening wear, jeans and mountaineering boots at left; double-breasted structured suit jacket with shorts and slippers at right

At any shopping mall on the weekend, you're likely to see at least one guy wearing a longer, structured suit jacket with blue denim badly. If you want to do this well, it's crucial that you wear a jacket that looks like a casual sport coat to avoid the harsh contrast. Needless to say, things like sweatpants and shorts with suit jackets are fashion, not traditional menswear.

Conclusion: What Spezzato is All About

Spezzato is really about experimenting and having fun, as well as getting the most out of your wardrobe. It's a game to see what sorts of combinations you can pull off with the limits being your personal taste and how much you want to be noticed.

For some, stretching the possibilities of a small tailored wardrobe is the motivation, and the goal is simply to transform suits into sport-coat-and-trouser looks. This approach breaks up a suit while still maintaining a balance in the sum of the parts, but others want to put the "broken" aspect front and center.

The next time you buy a suit, you may think about whether the halves can be worn as separates, so you will have multiple looks instead of only one. If you have only stuck to formal suits so far, the possibilities of spezzatomay inspire you to try some more casual versions with less structure.

Outfit Rundown

I'm wearing elements of two different suits from my own wardrobe in what is, effectively, one of the advanced spezzato techniques we outlined earlier.

Preston wearing a charcoal and royal blue spezzato look accented by Fort Belvedere accessories.

Fort Belvedere

Shadow Stripe Ribbed Socks Grey and Burgundy Red Fil d'Ecosse Cotton – Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Silver Eagle Claw Cufflinks with Lapis Lazuli Balls – 925 Sterling Palladium Plated – Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Cerulean Blue Pocket Square Art Deco Egyptian Scarab pattern in burnt orange, magenta, black with orange contrast edge by Fort Belvedere

Fort Belvedere

Pale Pink Mini Carnation Boutonniere Buttonhole Flower Fort Belvedere

Most of the suits I have in my own wardrobe are solids and in fairly neutral colors. So, I've attempted to pair the trousers and waistcoat of my charcoal grey suit with the jacket of my royal blue suit, hoping that there's enough contrast between the slightly lighter jacket and the trousers and waistcoat than there would be if the jacket were in a darker navy blue.

My shirt features a microgrid pattern of pink and blue on a white ground. And I've used similar warm color elements in my Fort Belvedere shadow-striped socks of pink and gray as well as my dark oxblood penny loafers, which, again, bring out that warm color feel. The blue in the checked pattern of the shirt helps to tie into the blue color of my jacket.

The loafers also reinforce the casual feel of the outfit. Along with my socks other Fort Belvedere accessories I'm wearing today include my cufflinks, which are our platinum-plated sterling silver eagle claw models, featuring blue lapis lazuli as the stone, my pocket square, which is in cerulean blue and an art deco Egyptian scarab design with other colors including burnt orange, magenta, black, and an orange contrast edge, and my boutonniere, which is a relatively new addition to our range.

It's a pale pink mini carnation with just a bit of purple detailing at the edges of the petals. A vintage bow tie from J. Press rounds out the look. It's in a dark red color featuring a small geometric pattern in blue and gray to harmonize with other elements of my outfit including the jacket, waistcoat, and trousers and the loafers as well.

And, of course, for all of the Fort Belvedere accessories, you can take a look at the Fort Belvedere shop.

Have you ever tried a spezzato look, and if so, how do you think it worked out? Share with us in the comments below!

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Source: https://www.gentlemansgazette.com/spezzato-how-divide-suit/

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