4x1 DB & shiny buttons on blazers

[Slobo]

For the lizards in the lounge, when did the 4x1 double breasted jacket begin to be acceptable, common wear? An unscientific review of 1940s movies suggests 4x2 was already pretty common, with some 4x1, but what are others' thoughts?

Similar question, when did brass and other metal buttons first become acceptable on sports coats as blazers? I have seen some photo evidence of brass-buttoned blue blazers on English schoolboys in the 30s, but more interested in their acceptance outside the school crowd and in the U.S.

 

[Wolf99]

4 x 1 button jackets arrived in the 1930s, I think. You see them in old adverts, Esquire illustrations and photographs. They were never as popular as more traditional styles but once buttoning a DB jacket on the lowest button had taken hold as a style (popularised by the then Prince of Wales and Duke of Kent) losing the top decorative button was a short step.

As for metal buttons on a blazer, they have been a feature of blazers since the term first came into existence, I think. One of the traditional explanations for the use of the term is that the blue blazers derive from the blue reefer style jackets worn by officers on HMS Blazer. In any event, their use, like that of shiny brass buttons on a naval uniform, has been there since the first blazers appeared in the nineteenth century.