An essay in the Tuxedo Park archives attributes the jacket's importation to America to resident James Brown Potter, a merchant banker who had worked in London for Brown Brothers. However, this claim for Potter cannot be verified through independent sources. Period newspaper accounts indicate that at first the jacket was worn by young mavericks to gatherings considered strictly formal. This led the American establishment to reject it out of hand. It was only by 1888 that polite society accepted its role solely as summer and informal evening substitute, at which point it became very popular.
An essay in the Tuxedo Park archives attributes the jacket's importation to America to resident James Brown Potter, a merchant banker who had worked in London for Brown Brothers. However this claim for Potter cannot be verified through independent sources. Period newspaper accounts indicate that at first the jacket was worn by young mavericks to gatherings considered strictly formal. This led the American establishment to reject it out of hand It was only by 1888 that polite society accepted its role solely as summer and informal evening substitute, at which point it became very popular