My brother Sam said burgundy was a “Halloween color for guys who peaked in college a cappella” and I told him he was wrong, and then I settled it the only way that works on him, I showed up to his birthday dinner in one and made him watch three separate people compliment it before he’d admit anything. He’s mostly conceded. Mostly. He still won’t wear one himself, but he’s stopped saying the word “maroon” like it’s an insult, which from Sam counts as a full surrender.
Here’s the actual problem with this jacket, and it’s not the color, it’s the dress code gray area it lives in. Burgundy reads formal enough that my office doesn’t blink when I wear it to a client meeting, but it’s got just enough personality that I’ve also worn the exact same jacket to a Tuesday where I did nothing but answer emails and eat a sandwich at my desk, and it worked both times.
That flexibility is the whole sell. A navy blazer says nothing. This says something without making you explain what.
What I don’t love, and this took me two winters to admit, is that the shade shifts hard depending on light. Under office fluorescents it looks like a serious, grown up wine color, exactly what you want walking into a room where someone’s deciding whether to trust you with a budget. Under streetlights on the walk home it goes almost brown, sometimes borderline maroon-black, and one night my roommate looked at me getting off the bus and asked why I was wearing a garbage bag colored jacket. I was not.
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The first real cold snap here in Seattle, we’re talking that first week where it’s suddenly 38 degrees and everyone’s pretending they weren’t caught off guard, is where I actually test these things. Mine held up fine layered over a sweater, no gaping at the collar, no wind getting in at the shoulders where cheap jackets always fail first. Sam’s old one, the version I eventually took from his closet without asking because the fit was better on me anyway, sorry Sam, did the same job for fifteen years apparently, so I had a low bar and it cleared it.
I’ll be honest that this is not a safe pick for everyone. If you already feel weird standing out in a room, burgundy will make that worse before it makes it better, it draws exactly the kind of attention a black blazer never will. On the right person in the right office it looks decisive. On the wrong person it looks like a costume. I happen to think the gamble’s worth it, but I’ve been wrong about colors before, ask anyone who saw me in the orange phase of 2019.
