100 Years of Beer Jackets

It’s an easy scene to imagine: A few Princeton seniors sit down to have some beers at the Nassau Inn. It’s 1912, so there’s no game on TV. The men are just hanging out, carving their initials into the table and sipping their cool, refreshing beverages. But suddenly there’s a problem.

“That damn foam!”

The senior tries furiously to scrub the beer out of his suit, inevitably making it worse in the process. He sighs, exasperated, knowing that he’ll have to pay another expensive dry cleaning bill so he can wear the suit at graduation.

But before giving in, he entertains an idea: What if he could spill some beer ... and it wouldn’t matter?

In the proactive spirit of true Princetonians, these members of the Class of 1912 decided they’d start wearing denim overalls and jackets like workmen wore. They could drink without worry, and the beer jacket was born.

What started out as a practical solution to a foamy problem, however, quickly evolved into an iconic Princeton tradition. By 1913, the whole senior class started wearing “beer suits,” more to show their seniority than to use while drinking. The suits disappeared for a few years during World War I, but today, the Class of 2012 is deciding on a beer jacket design and getting ready to mark the 100th anniversary of beer jackets at Princeton.

Deciding on a beer jacket (or, “class jacket,” as the University would say) is no small feat. The approximately 1,258 members of the Class of 2012 will wear these jackets at every reunion until their 25th, when alumni receive their class blazers.

“Getting a beer jacket is one of the signature Princeton moments,” says James Smits ’12, who serves on the beer jacket committee along with Jake Sally ’12 and Louisa Ferguson ’12. “Here you are, and it’s your last hurrah at Princeton — the culmination.”

Seniors were encouraged to send in jacket designs for consideration back in August, and now the class is in the midst of its first round of voting. While beer jackets have the same structure every year — they are loose-fitting, made of lightweight cotton twill and have inner pockets for beer cans — there were no other design requirements.

The 34 jackets in the running range in style. “A lot of the designs you see are very exciting. Some have revolutionary ideas, while some are closer to past beer jackets or Class of 2012 T-shirts,” says Smits.

The idea of submitting a design has an obvious appeal — if all goes well, your classmates could potentially be wearing your design on their backs for the next 25 years. Alex Mannix ’12, however, had a simpler motivation. “I’ve talked to seniors in years past who said they looked at the jackets and saw a lot of good ones but not one that they loved. I really wanted to design one that I could be happy with,” she said.

Many of the jackets have designs incorporating stripes, the Princeton shield, tigers and “2012.” One of the more adventurous jackets includes large blue lightning bolts running down each arm; another uses tigers’ tails to form the number “12.”

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The huge variety of submissions represents the diversity of opinions regarding what the ideal beer jacket should be, and in a class of 1,258 students it’s hard to find something that pleases everyone. “The design should not just be applicable to one group but rather to the class as a whole,” says Smits. While the senior class today is more diverse in every way than the Class of 1912, the question remains the same: What makes a good beer jacket?

To Andrew Lu ’12, who submitted a jacket design for consideration, a good jacket is, quite simply, one that most of the class is happy to wear. “For me,” he says, “I think that entails a jacket with the class year on the back, a simple yet unique design and classic colors.”

Mollie Reiss ’12 added another dimension to the criteria, commenting, “The design has to be the right balance of Princeton pride — black, orange, tiger references, classic Princeton symbols — and timelessness, something that people will be excited about and proud to wear for 25 years.”

Because the thread of tradition is so strong when it comes to beer jackets, even some people who would normally go the adventurous route prefer to keep it simple. “The beer jackets are seniors’ first real association with alumni, so they kind of have to fit into the cadre of previous jackets — innovative but also, in a sense, traditional,” said Reiss.

One key debate in many senior beer jacket musings is what the jacket’s major color should be. Though the first jackets made by the Class of 1912 were actually blue, today’s reunions are mostly a sea of black-based beer jackets with orange and white accents. The Class of 2009 took a memorably different direction with their cream-colored jackets that had a retro feel. Mannix understands the appeal of white because it helps a class stand out, but adds, “I’m worried they would get dirty really easily.”

Another point of contention is whether a beer jacket should include some characteristic representative of events current to the class’ graduation year. The Class of 1941, who graduated during World War II, marked their jackets with a tiger wearing a helmet and sitting on a bomb-shaped globe with a lit fuse. In 2002, the class debated whether or not to include a symbol acknowledging the 9/11 attacks on their jackets. In the end, class members had the option to adorn their sleeve with a red, white and blue ribbon if they so desired (about 70% of students opted for it).

Most 2012 submissions shied away from an explicit time marker, but one design included the silhouette of someone in cap and gown, accompanied by the word “iGrad” and a Princeton shield in place of the Apple logo.

Adding a “spirit of the times” flair makes the jacket special, but some students worry that it also runs the risk of becoming unpleasantly dated come the 20th reunion, or maybe even the fifth. “It can’t be something too ‘of the moment’ because in a few years, those will have no meaning for people,” said Reiss. She pointed out that classes usually order light-hearted themed clothing for their major reunions. “The five year outfit is where you can get funky or pop-cultural if you want, but the jackets are a more serious undertaking,” she said.

It’s near impossible to get 1,258 people with different styles and priorities to agree. But by late November, the Class of 2012 will select a design and celebrate 100 years of beer jackets. They’ll tune their hearts and voices in matching jackets, and bid every care withdraw — perhaps with a beer in hand.