JACK CARLSON TO RELEASE NEW, EXPANDED EDITION OF ROWING BLAZERS ON ITS TENTH ANNIVERSARY
Ten years ago, designer and U.S. rowing team member Jack Carlson released a richly photographed book about the history and tradition of the rowing blazer at colleges, schools, national teams, and amateur clubs around the world: the striped, piped, and badged garments that epitomize the “preppy” look and have inspired designers from Ralph Lauren to Thom Browne.
The book — an ode to the club blazer and the colorful myths, rituals, spaces, and races associated with them — was a passion project intended primarily for the rowing community. However, with the backing of Ralph Lauren, the book became an instant cult classic in menswear and fashion circles. The book’s success laid the foundation for the Rowing Blazers brand, which Carlson formally launched three years later in 2017. Initially focused on designing and producing club blazers, the brand quickly developed into a full-fledged menswear label, combining elements from the worlds of tailoring, sportswear, and streetwear and launching high-profile collaborations with Barbour, Seiko, FILA, the NBA, and, most recently, Gucci, and Target, garnering a devoted following along the way, and helping to redefine “preppy” for a new generation.
Earlier this year, Carlson sold a majority stake in the Rowing Blazers brand to Tory Burch co-founder Chris Burch, and now, in a full-circle moment, he is launching a revised and expanded new edition of the book that started it all to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the original edition.
“The fashion world, the connotations and meaning of the word ‘preppy,’ and, of course, the sport of rowing have changed enormously since the original edition of the book,” Carlson stated. “The sport is far more diverse than it used to be, which is a great thing to see. And the blazer tradition is much more widespread. I’d like to think that Rowing Blazers has had something to do with that. And ‘preppy’ means something different now too: less stuffy, less elitist. More fun, more colorful.”
The new edition of the book features many new clubs and teams that were not in the original edition, from the historic Shanghai Rowing Club in China to Tigre Boat Club in Argentina; Nassau Rowing Club in the Bahamas, to Partez Rowing Club in Japan. New U.S. clubs include the storied program at the University of Washington, recently featured in George Clooney’s film The Boys in the Boat, as well as Penn, the University of Texas, and Manley High School in Chicago — home of the nation’s first all-Black high school rowing team — alongside prep schools like Groton and Deerfield. The book also features Row New York and London’s Fulham Reach Boat Club, two rowing programs focused on diversity, access, and inclusion, as well as Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (of The Social Network fame) and Olympic champions from Great Britain, New Zealand, Germany, the United States, South Africa, and more.
“I’m so happy with how the new edition has turned out, and very grateful to my publisher Vendome,” said Jack. “The new edition of the book takes me back to the origins of the Rowing Blazers brand. Authenticity, irreverence, sport, color: these are the pillars of the brand, and they all come directly from the book and the quirky anecdotes and traditions it documents.”
The book will be available worldwide on Tuesday, April 16th, retailing for $60, with a limited number of signed copies available for preorder on the Rowing Blazers website.
