What Is a Notched Lapel?

What is a notched lapel used for?

A notched lapel lets the top of a jacket front fold back and open at the neck, and joins that fold to a separate collar at a visible step, the notch. The lapel is the uppermost part of the jacket’s facing, folded back to show on the outside. The notch sits at the end of the gorge, the seam that joins collar and lapel, so it is where that join shows.

How is a notched lapel made?

A notched lapel is made by shaping the jacket front first, with interfacing, tape, hand stitching and pressing, so that the lapel rolls back on its own, and then sewing the upper collar to the front facing along a short seam, the gorge.

The parts of a notched lapel

• Lapel: the top of the jacket facing, turned back to show on the outside.
• Collar: an upper collar over an under collar. The stand rises from the neck edge to the fold; the fall drops from the fold to the outer edge.
• Gorge: the seam that joins the upper collar to the front facing.
• Notch: the gap from the end of the gorge to the point of the collar.
• Roll line: the fold along which the collar and lapel turn back.
• Lapel buttonhole: a buttonhole on the left lapel, made to hold a flower.

How a tailor shapes it by hand

A University of Kentucky extension guide to custom tailoring sets out the hand method, in this order:

1. Cutting. The under collar is cut on the true bias, for the best shaping. The upper collar is cut slightly larger, so the seam between them will not roll out to the edge.
2. Interfacing. In wool and wool-like cloth, the front and collar are backed with hair canvas, which gives the collar and lapels stiffness and body.
3. Taping. Twill tape, cut 13–19 mm (½–¾ inch) shorter than the roll line, is placed along it on the lapel side and pulled taut.
4. Padding. The lapel is pad stitched with rows of small, permanent hand stitches, usually about 6 mm (¼ inch) long and 6 mm apart, that hold the canvas to the cloth. The tailor keeps the lapel rolled over the hand while stitching, so that it rolls the way it will when worn. In the last 25 mm (1 inch) of the point, the stitches become very short and close together.
5. Pressing. The lapel is pressed over the curved edge of a tailor’s ham or seam roll, which helps it keep its curve.
6. Collar. Later, the upper collar is sewn to the facing along the gorge; once the facing is on, the collar edges are finished to the under collar and lapel.

For a Savile Row bespoke coat, the Savile Row Bespoke Association’s specification adds fully hand-canvassed foreparts (the jacket fronts) and a top collar hand draw-stitched onto the facing.

How do you spot a good notched lapel, and a poor one?

A good notched lapel curves softly over its roll line, keeps the collar seam out of sight, matches on both sides and, on bespoke work, has a hand-stitched buttonhole you can use.

• Look at the roll from the side. The lapel should turn back in a curve, the shape set by pad stitching it while rolled over the hand and pressing it on a curved ham. A hard crease ironed flat along the roll line works against that shaping.
• Compare left and right. The lapel and collar points should be the same length and shape on both sides of the jacket.
• Follow the collar edge into the notch. No seam or under collar should show on the outer edge; that is why the upper collar is cut larger.
• Look at the back of the neck. The collar should lie against the coat and cover the seam at the back neckline.
• Pinch the lapel point. Closer pad stitches add more body, and the hand method packs them tightest in the last 25 mm of the point, so a hand-padded point should have body of its own.
• Look along the gorge. The Savile Row Bespoke Association’s coat specification lists “hand top-stitching on pocket and gorge”, so on bespoke work expect a fine line of hand topstitching beside that seam.
• Turn back the left lapel. On a bespoke coat the lapel buttonhole is hand-stitched, with a sewn loop behind it for a flower stem. A tailored worked buttonhole is padded with gimp, a heavy thread. One that is stitched but not cut open is decorative only: it cannot hold a flower.

Red flags

• A sharp crease ironed flat into the roll line.
• The collar seam or under collar showing along the outer edge.
• Lapel or collar points that differ in length or shape from one side to the other.

Where do you usually find a notched lapel?

By convention, notched lapels go on single-breasted jackets outside formal wear. That includes suit jackets and the blazer, which in the 1880s was a single-breasted lounge jacket, often made in bright stripes.

Convention has reserved peak lapels for double-breasted suit jackets, and a peak is dressier than a notch on a dinner jacket. The dinner jacket emerged in the 1880s as a dress version of the lounge jacket, worn with black tie; in the United States it became known as the tuxedo. In the same decade, evening tailcoats often swapped their notched collars for a continuous rolled collar faced in satin, the shape now called a shawl collar.

The notch is far older than this convention. In the first decade of the 19th century, men’s tailcoats had high collars that sloped into lapels cut with an ‘M’- or ‘V’-shaped notch. The sack, or lounge, suit goes back to at least the 1880s. A Globe and Mail style piece notes that peak lapels were common on single-breasted jackets until the 1940s, while broad shoulders were in fashion. In the 1950s, it adds, the American sack suit brought in a boxier look, and notch lapels took over.

Notched lapel vs peak lapel vs shawl collar

To tell the three apart, look where the collar meets the lapel.