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Unlined Vs Lined Men's Jackets - Should A Jacket Have A Lining - Unlined & Lined Style
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Hi! I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style. Today, I'm going to be talking
about lined jackets versus unlined jackets.
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So I have some visuals today that I'm going to show you guys. Basically, this is a lined
jacket. So from the outside, I can't really tell. This is a classic navy. It's got a little
bit of a unique weave to it, one of my first custom pieces here. And then the inside of
it, we can see that this is fully lined, so most jackets that you see out there are going
to be fully lined. This one is actually handmade or the lining has been inserted by hand, so
I could see that. I could look at the sewing here. I could see the stitching, so nothing
super exciting. I mean, a little bit of a contrast, a little bit of a color there, but
this is something we'd see on typically most jackets out there.
Now, lined jackets are great and let me tell you why, durability number one. So a lined
jacket is basically putting a layer of material, usually Bemberg, some higher end ones. Some
people ask for silk, but I don't think silk is as good as Bemberg. Bemberg is actually
made from -- they take wood pulp and they turn it into a fiber, which then they sew,
but it's been around for over 75 years. It came out of Germany, amazing material. The
best craftsmen in the world use this stuff and that's what you want because it's very
breathable. It's more breathable and more durable, and it's just going to help your
jacket last longer. So if you wear your jacket a lot, you want to have a lining.
In addition, lining is going to help keep the jacket a bit warmer. So if you live in
a cold weather area or you get all four seasons, having a lined jacket for at least three of
the seasons is not bad. I mean, it works out perfectly and it's going to allow the jacket
to maintain and to keep your warmth in. It's also more common, so therefore, it's going
to be generally less expensive. It's just more machines, more factories that are making
jackets like this, so you're going to have a wider variety. It's going to be something
that -- yeah, there's just more of them out there, so therefore the price is -- you're
going to be able to find better deals.
It also allows you to cover up shotty work, so sometimes you can have a great jacket on
the outside and it'll fit well. On the inside, if we were to cut it open, it's not going
to look great. So by having a lining inside the jacket, you're never going to see that
shotty work on the inside. Some people may say that's a disadvantage. It depends. If
you never know what's there or the jacket feels or looks great, I'm going to say go
for it. Sometimes tailors get a little bit lazy on the inside and they don't make it
look perfect. That's perfectly fine as long as on the outside, you feel great and it works
and it functions.
The other thing is adjustments. An unlined jacket isn't usually going to have that much
room for adjustments. A lined jacket is going to have a lot more room usually. It depends
on the company or the manufacturer. Some manufacturers are really skimping on the amount of material
they leave in there, and I'll show you guys an unlined jacket, how much, and where they
usually pull the material for the adjustment like in the back or on the sides, so usually
lined jackets have a bit more material in there because they can leave it and no one's
going to see it.
So let's go ahead and talk about unlined jacket, so I'll talk about three types. People just,
in general, we say unlined jackets, but there are actually half-lined, quarter-lined, and
skeleton-lined jackets. What do I mean by that? Basically, half-lined, I don't really
have an example here, but the big difference or the big thing with the half-lined is it's
going to go about halfway down the back. You'll normally see this on something like a seersucker
suit, so you walk in and most seersucker suits are going to be half-lined. That's probably
one of the best examples.
Walk into a nice place like Brooks Brothers, Paul Stuart, these places are going to carry
seersucker. Look at one of those jackets. That jacket is normally going to be half-lined
and that's exactly where the lining goes, about halfway down the back and the front
is fully lined as well, so that's not truly half-lined, but that's what we call it.
The quarter-lined, this is how I make most of my jackets. Just to let you know, for a
client, I'm not going to make his first jacket unlined, the reason being is the adjustment
issue I was talking about because if I need to adjust the jacket, I want to have room
to do it. I want to be able to get in on the insides and perhaps make a mess if we need
to make some major adjustments. I can't do that with an unlined jacket because an unlined
jacket basically is showing the world what is on the inside of the jacket, so here you
can see.
And this one's great because it's got a nice contrast, one of my favorite jackets. You
guys have probably seen this on me. I'll talk about this one mostly. You can see that this
is a quarter-lined jacket. The entire back is exposed to the fabric, so you can't see
through it, but this is a hopsack fabric and I really like it because it's very breathable.
I have this jacket specifically made for me when I travel down to Austin, Texas in the
heat because this hopsack is very breathable and with it being half-lined, all of a sudden,
it allows air to move on and off my back, so I can wear a linen shirt underneath and
it feels great. It actually feels pretty cool. It keeps the sun off my back. It does a great
job here.
Remember I was talking about the adjustments, how much material we have. So right here,
you can see that I can only open this jacket up about an inch before I pretty much run
out of fabric, maybe an inch and a half in certain areas, but see how this is finished?
It looks beautiful. That's because the inside of an unlined jacket is exposed, and that's
one of the reasons that these are typically more expensive, is that the tailor has to
not only make the outside the whole thing that everyone sees look great, but he also
has to work on the inside the jacket, so it's like doing a double job. It's a lot of excess
work.
Now, you have to have lining in certain areas. You don't have to actually have a lining.
You can actually use the outside material on the inside as well, but with a jacket like
this, we're always going to still cover up the shoulder pads. These shoulder pads, I'm
not going to zoom it on here, but the front canvassing in the front needs to be covered.
That's why we've got the lining right there in the front.
Actually, I used patch pockets on this jacket, but if I used welt pockets, which basically
go into the material, that's another reason you need to have a lining on the front so
that they cover up all the work on the pockets. Now, I'm going to show you guys a skeleton
jacket here in a second.
What other points? Really, why do people get unlined jackets? Well, besides the beauty
and it's basically a work of art, is it's cooler. I just mentioned I had this one made
for me when I go down to Austin, Texas. A lot of guys complain, "Oh, I can't wear a
jacket. It's incredibly hot." Well, if you've ever been to the Middle East, the last time
I checked -- and I've been to the Persian Gulf a couple of times -- and every time I'm
in Dubai or these areas, those guys are wearing a lot more clothing. I could tell you, they're
a lot cooler than the guy walking around in their t-shirt and shorts.
Basically, they are covering their skin from exposure to the sun and some of the elements,
and they're actually much cooler. They're using the right fabrics. They're using the
right weaves and that's what you do with an unlined jacket.
I promised you guys a skeleton jacket and this is actually probably one of my favorite
jackets. You see this in a lot of videos. This is the jacket with the breast pocket
on the right hand side, so we can look at the inside here. And in this skeleton jacket
-- sorry, not too much for contrast here, but what you can see is I've used the same
lining that was on the outside as on the inside. This is a skeleton jacket. In addition, the
lining, the amount I used on here is very, very minimum, so the back again is totally
unlined.
I would have to say that this weave is not as porous as the hopsack, but it's still a
very lightweight, tropical wool, so air can move through this pretty easily, but this
jacket I really just wanted it. Again, I was traveling down south. I wanted something that
was a bit more formal, on the other hand, would be breathable, wouldn't be very hot.
But again, in this one, you can see there's almost no contrast, but I did use the same
material that we used on the outside on the inside.
Now, I did talk about durability. I can tell you, this jacket I've actually cut a couple
of times and I've got to go in and do a little bit of repair. There are a few little tears
basically where things have been cut and that's where having a lined jacket -- if you wear
your jacket every single day, and again, it gets pretty cool where you're at, you're probably
going to want to go with a lined jacket simply because it's going to require less maintenance,
less minor repairs. Again, this doesn’t happen very often with the unlined jackets,
but durability is a huge issue. Once you start wearing that jacket a lot, you'll start getting
stains.
You can actually have a lined jacket and have the entire lining replaced. Yes, it's going
to be a little bit more expensive, but it's a lot less expensive than having an entire
jacket built. The problem with the unlined jacket is if I tear anything in the back area,
I basically tear through the jacket and that's a much more costly fix.
Okay, guys, so there isn't a right or wrong choice when going with lined or unlined jackets.
It really depends on your need, so determine what that is and make a good decision for
yourself.
If you've got more questions about men's style, go to mensstyleqa.com. You know that’s where
I'm answering most people's questions. YouTube, the comments, I love hearing from you guys,
but the comments down there are broke and I don't see half the comments, so we'd love
to see you over at mensstyleqa.com.
Take care. See you guys in the next video. Bye-bye.