BLAZERS
H 54
Henley Royal Regatta, now in its 175th year, is often described as magical. The picturesque – and, for the uninitiated, rather curious – dress
code of the Stewards’ Enclosure plays an important role in creating this magic. At the same time, the regatta and its rules have ensured that rowing’s glorious, if quirky, blazer culture is both surviving and thriving nearly two centuries on. For the Edwardian dress code, which
“encourages” ladies to wear hats, keeps hemlines several inches below the knee, and, most importantly, prevents gentlemen from removing their jackets, means that Henley serves as an annual five-day forum for rowers young and old to see and be seen. My initial encounter with rowing
blazers came 10 years ago, when I first competed at Henley. In 1929, my school
became the first American high school to win a cup at Henley, and so the 2004 crew was duly shipped over to compete and to celebrate the 75th anniversary of this victory. Alas, we were knocked out in the first round. However, our elimination did leave us with plenty of time to study and admire the bewildering array of club blazers on show. The gaudy stripes and absurd colour combinations made our blazers – navy blue with bright white binding and a pocket badge – look positively mundane. The experience imbued me with a
ravenous determination to win Henley (a goal I finally achieved in 2013). It also left me with an intense interest in the pageantry of rowing blazers and their colourful histories and eccentric traditions. By 2010, I found myself ideally placed to investigate these bizarre vestments in depth, as a graduate student at Oxford University (spiritual home of the boating jacket and one of
ABOVE Will Zeng in Oriel College BELOW Crew from New College, Oxford, 1860
ROW360 // Issue 001
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116