Most men own a navy blazer. Almost none own a striped one, which is precisely what makes the regatta blazer worth talking about. Born on the Thames at Henley, adopted by cricket clubs and colleges, then hijacked by 1960s mods and ageing rock stars, it has spent two centuries refusing to stay respectable. Here is how to wear one now.

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Where the name began

How the Regatta Blazer Got Its Name

Most people call it a Henley blazer. Some call it a regatta blazer, others a boating jacket. All three names point to the same garment, and all three point back to rowing, in particular to the Henley Royal Regatta, the annual race on the Thames where teams from around the world compete every summer. The story of how a rowing jacket became a wardrobe staple is older and stranger than most people assume, and it starts with a very specific red coat.

The rowers of the early 19th century, around the 1800s, wore brightly coloured flannel jackets that functioned as an early kind of tracksuit top, usually made in team colours. The red jacket worn by Lady Margaret's boat club in Cambridge is widely cited as the original of the type, since the jacket was so vivid that its wearers were said to be wearing a blaze. From there, the name stuck, and the blazer was born.

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Beyond the boathouse

From Boathouse to Cricket Pavilion: How the Blazer Spread

What began at Lady Margaret quickly became fashionable at other Cambridge and Oxford colleges, and by the late 19th century the striped blazer had moved well beyond rowing into cricket clubs, athletic clubs, colleges, universities and schools. It became, in effect, a uniform in all sorts, with striped versions alongside plain colours, often finished with taped edges, badges and crested buttons.

Who could wear which blazer depended entirely on the club or organisation in question, and the rules were rarely casual. Some clubs required members to earn the right, achieving what Oxford and Cambridge oarsmen call full colours, a formal recognition of achievement within the club. Lesser achievements sometimes carried half colours instead, a distinct and less senior version of the same privilege. The same logic applied to cricket, where a sweater with coloured trim traditionally had to be earned, often by scoring fifty or a hundred runs, and anyone who had not reached that mark played in plain kit instead.

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Across the Atlantic

How the Regatta Blazer Reached America and the Ivy League

Like a good many high-end English fashions, the striped blazer crossed the Atlantic and was quickly adopted at Harvard and the other Ivy League colleges, which developed their own striped versions of the garment. For anyone who wants to go further into the subject, the writer Jack Carlson has produced a thorough and beautifully illustrated study of the style called Rowing Blazers, tracing the full breadth of colours and stripes worn by boat clubs on both sides of the Atlantic. It rewards a slow read for anyone who has fallen for the style.

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The 1960s subversion

Why the Regatta Blazer Became a Uniform of British Eccentricity

The regatta blazer's most interesting chapter, and the one that gives it its enduring appeal, begins in the post-war British period. Through the 1950s and 60s, the look started to shift. Early mods, dressed in seersucker and mohair, would often turn up in stripy regatta blazers, pulling a strictly club-bound garment into a much freer, fashion-forward context.

Nobody is entirely sure why the shift happened. It may be that mods had picked up on Ivy League tailoring, the sack suits and button-down shirts arriving from America, in which case the blazer had simply made the round trip: Britain to America and back to Britain again, a pattern that recurs constantly in fashion history. Alternatively, it may have been part of a broader 1960s instinct for taking British institutions and heritage pieces and subverting them, in much the same way that some hippies of the era wore a guardsman's tunic pulled from an entirely different context.

Whatever the cause, the blazer became firmly embedded in 1960s pop culture. British television of the period leaned into it too: shows like The Prisoner and The Avengers regularly dressed their leading men in exactly this type of garment for countryside scenes, giving it a faintly subversive, eccentric, dandyish quality that has never quite left it. Into the 1970s it drifted toward a different cliche, the ageing rock star who had made his money, moved to the country, and paired his stripy blazer with a plain T-shirt. By the 1980s it had settled into the wardrobe of the slightly quirky daytime television presenter, doing the crossword in a blazer nobody else in the room was wearing. Today, interest in Ivy League and preppy heritage has brought the style back into view again, particularly from brands with a taste for romanticising the past.

If you are going to wear a striped blazer to the Henley Royal Regatta, it has to be one you have earned. Outside a regatta, it is fair game.

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Colours and etiquette

Should You Wear a Regatta Blazer to the Henley Royal Regatta?

This is the one place the regatta blazer gets properly complicated, because the garment carries real meaning for the people who earned it. A blazer awarded for full colours or half colours is a badge of achievement within a specific club, and wearing a striped blazer you have no connection to at the regatta itself can read as a costume rather than a credential. The honest position, and the one worth adopting if you are a guest rather than a member, is to leave the stripes at home and wear a plain navy boating jacket instead. Still nautical, still respectful of the occasion, and entirely without the slightly fake note that comes from borrowing someone else's stripes for the day.

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Cut and construction

What Makes a Well-Made Regatta Blazer

A bold, striped cloth punishes bad tailoring in a way that plain navy never will, because every seam, dart and pocket either respects the stripe or interrupts it. A handful of construction choices separate a considered regatta blazer from a costume version, and they are worth understanding whether you are commissioning one or simply want to recognise good work when you see it.

A three-button front tends to suit the style particularly well. It lends a longer roll to the front of the jacket, which means more stripe is visible and the vertical lines read cleanly, and it leans naturally into the sportier, old-fashioned character the blazer is built around. The lapel width matters too: a lapel of around three and a quarter inches gives enough room to show a full, unbroken stripe on both sides.

The more interesting decision concerns the front dart. Most jackets use a dart to shape the waist, but a dart interrupts the stripe as it runs from shoulder to hem. Cutting the jacket without a front dart keeps the stripe unbroken from the shoulder seam all the way down, at the cost of a slightly boxier fit through the chest, since all the waist shaping then has to happen at the side seam instead. The trade is usually worth it: a jacket that keeps faith with its own pattern looks more considered than one that fits half an inch closer but breaks the stripe at every dart.

Patch pockets, rather than flat welted pockets, avoid a horizontal seam cutting across the stripe and suit the sportier origins of the garment. A chest welt pocket can sit more comfortably than a patch pocket at chest height, since a fully patched chest can start to look closer to a school uniform than a piece of adult tailoring, though either is defensible provided the stripe still matches across it. At the back, a single continuous piece of cloth, cut without a centre seam and without vents, keeps the stripe running unbroken from the collar down, and it is worth asking about specifically, since most jackets on the market today, however good the maker, are cut with a centre back seam as standard. The lapels themselves will never mirror each other perfectly in a striped cloth, since matching both sides exactly would mean cutting the fabric the wrong way and losing the correct light reflection. The convention is to match the outer edge of the stripe and let the inner edge fall where it falls: a small, deliberate compromise rather than a flaw.

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Weekend wear

How to Wear a Regatta Blazer Today

Away from the regatta itself, the striped blazer is essentially fair game, in the same way a tweed that has no connection to a particular estate, or a tie in a club pattern you have no membership of, is fair game. Treat it as a playful summer jacket for weekends, garden parties and social occasions rather than as a piece of formalwear, and it earns its place in the wardrobe quickly. It also helps to remember its sporting origins: this was a garment designed to be thrown on rather than treated preciously, so do not be afraid to wear it with jeans and a jumper, or even with trainers, on a cooler spring day.

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Softer and easier

Regatta Blazer Styling: The Smart-Weekend Look

The simplest way into the style is also the most relaxed. A long-sleeved merino polo shirt underneath the blazer softens the whole outfit and pulls it further from formalwear and closer to easy weekend dressing, while a fine cotton or linen pocket square keeps the top half of the outfit from feeling flat. This combination works particularly well for daytime events where a full shirt and tie would feel like overdressing: a lunch, a garden party, an afternoon spent somewhere that still wants a jacket but nothing stiffer than that.

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Bolder and more theatrical

Regatta Blazer Styling: The English Eccentric Look

For anyone who wants to lean into the blazer's more theatrical side, an Oxford button-down shirt with a bold striped or patterned tie is the classic combination, and it is worth taking seriously rather than treating as fancy dress. A stripe-on-stripe pairing sounds risky in principle but works because the tie and jacket rarely share the same scale or colourway, and a patterned pocket square finishes the look without competing directly with either. This is the version of the blazer that owes the most to the English dandy tradition: it should feel a little theatrical, a little knowing, and entirely comfortable with being noticed.

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Truest to the era

Regatta Blazer Styling: The 1960s Mod Look

The most historically faithful way to wear the blazer takes its cue directly from the early mods who first subverted it. A shirt with a small, rounded collar, a knitted tie rather than a smooth silk one, and a neatly folded pocket square all sit closer to that period than a conventional shirt-and-tie combination would. Underneath, slim-fitting grey trousers keep the silhouette lean, and loafers or chukka boots with a slightly brighter sock finish the look without pushing it into costume territory. This version rewards restraint everywhere except the blazer itself, which is doing all the talking.

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Rawest and most relaxed

Regatta Blazer Styling: The Off-Duty Chambray Look

The last word on wearing a regatta blazer is also the truest to its origins as a throw-on sports garment. A chambray shirt underneath keeps everything grounded and easy, and the blazer sits happily over dark denim or white cords, a chunky knit, or nothing more considered than a T-shirt if the weather allows it. A single pocket square in a small, neat pattern is enough to stop the outfit looking unfinished without pulling it back toward formalwear. This is the version to reach for on a Saturday when the blazer wants to feel like sportswear again rather than a piece of tailoring.

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Sourcing the cloth

Where to Find Regatta Blazer Cloth

A regatta blazer of any real character will usually need to be commissioned rather than bought off the peg, since striped boating cloth rarely makes it into ready-to-wear collections. The cloth itself is not hard to find if you know where to look: most specialist cloth merchants carry a good selection of regatta stripes, and it is worth asking to see a full bunch rather than settling for the first bold option shown to you. If authenticity matters to you, worn-in over crisp is the better instinct: a blazer that looks a little softened and slightly too small suits the tradition far better than one that still looks fresh off the tailor's rail.

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Frequently asked questions

Your Questions About Wearing a Regatta Blazer, Answered

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To explore ties and pocket squares that pair naturally with a striped blazer, click below.