From the June/July 2013 issue

I can't say for sure where I was headed the first time my mom put a blue blazer on me. Church, probably. West Side Presbyterian in Ridgewood, New Jersey, specifically, where my blazer was paired with a clip-on tie and a pair of khakis for a Sunday morning with my fellow congregants. The blazer gave the impression to all that I was a well-scrubbed, respectful, devout young man, even as I heckled the pastor under my breath and drew a pair of boobs on the offertory cards. Powerful as it may be, there's only so much a blue blazer can conceal.

When you're young, the blue blazer feels like a grown-up costume. It's the first piece of adult clothing that most boys ever own, and on those rare occasions when you pull it out of the back left-hand corner of your closet — for church, weddings, funerals, and graduations — it gives you the look (in your own mind, anyway) of one of those old men with white hair and stock portfolios talking about putting in the Men's Grill. (Ted Knight's Judge Smails in Caddyshack, at Bushwood Country Club, comes to mind.) The fit is never quite right because, really, what kid goes to a tailor? A blazer is generally grabbed off the rack by Mom every few years at Brooks Brothers or Syms (we favored the one on Route 17 North in Paramus) in a race to keep up with pubescent growth spurts. I believe my size was "close enough."

Then something happens, quietly, over all those years of being forced into an ill-fitting uniform of adulthood: The thing starts to make sense. You begin to like the places the blue blazer takes you. My single-breasted guy gets me out of the house on weekends with a pair of jeans and a pocket square to color it up. It wakes up with me on those early, dark workdays. The blazer and I rise before dawn many mornings for the trip to 30 Rock, joined for a day of television by a pair of gray pants, everything a bit more fitted than that old church getup from back in the day.

After all those years of mixed feelings, you wake up and see the blue blazer has elbowed its way to the front of the closet. And, by God, it has earned that real estate. It has earned our respect. It has become essential. The blue blazer has always been there for us, hanging patiently, waiting for us to grow into it.

Geist is a cohost on both NBC's Today show and Morning Joe on MSNBC. He likes a blue blazer.

Four Options to Help You Stand Out This Summer

Lightly patterned: Two-button wool-cashmere-and-silk jacket ($1,295) by Luigi Bianchi Mantova; Deconstructed: Two-button linen-and-cotton jacket ($650) by L.B.M. 1911; Double-Breasted: Cotton-and-linen jacket ($995) by Jack Spade; With buttons that pop: Two-button linen jacket ($635) by CH Carolina Herrera.

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