British warm in woollen hopsack in light sheep
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£640.00 — ex VAT
Double-breasted tailored overcoat, made in London, with a mid-weight (23oz) hopsack made with undyed British wool in Scotland, and buttons made with horn in the Cotswolds.
Sizing
The British warm fits true to size, so the mannequin — so standard a 40 chest he has it branded on his chest — is wearing a size M.
| XS | S | M | L | XL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| To fit chest | 36 | 38 | 40 | 42 | 44 |
| Pit-to-pit | 19½ | 20½ | 21½ | 22½ | 23½ |
| Waist | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| Back length | 44½ | 44¾ | 45 | 45¼ | 45½ |
| Sleeve from centre-back | 34¼ | 34¾ | 35¼ | 35¾ | 36¼ |
The method of sleeve construction, with the sleeve cut as one continuous panel from neck to cuff, means the shoulders accommodate and drape smoothly over human contours of every shape and size — rendering a shoulder measurement both impossible and irrelevant.
The British warm is a long, double-breasted overcoat in the tailored tradition, with a name that stems back to the coats worn by generals of the British Army in World War II. This one is less tailored than those of yore: a softer style of shoulder, a longer length, and a slightly more tailored body.
There are four pockets on the outside of the British warm. Two of them are large and deep and sit at the waist, and are covered by flaps. Then there's a smaller ticket pocket on the right side as worn, likewise flap-covered, and an even smaller chest pocket which is covered by a slightly unorthodox upside-down flap.
The buttons on the coat are large, solid horn — middling in shade and matte in finish — and each is a little different from one to the next. They are in that regard as if alpha-keratin snowflakes — such is the beauty of being a product of a high-grade natural material, rather than, say, a plastic replica.
Running up the back of the coat is an inverted pleat, which is there to give shoulders more room to flex. There's a half-belt running across the small of the back, meanwhile. This breaks up the length of the coat, and also serves as the starting point for the long vent that runs the rest of the way to the hem.
The warm has a saddle shoulder, which is unusual for this type of coat — or indeed, for any coat beyond the bounds of the workshop — and happens to offer up the best of a classic set-in sleeve, with the clean and structured lines, and the raglan, with the soft profile over the shoulder.
There are three buttons at the cuff, with the buttonholes cut open. It is a working cuff, in other words, though has no quarrel whatsoever with cuffs that cannot work or do not work.
There's handiwork here and there on the British warm, such as under the collar, where the lapel and collar are coaxed together with a criss-cross "duck-stitch".
The coat is fully lined with a slinky, lightweight satin, making donning and undonning it a breeze, and helping to reduce friction with whatever is worn underneath. There are two pockets on the inside of the coat, too — both of them at chest height, for wallets or phones, and made in a neat, traditional jetted style.
Hearty cloth, this, made exclusively with the undyed yarn of British sheep, and with the pleasing pebbly texture of a fairly chunky two-ply hopsack. It is dense cloth, and therefore warm, but it has an easy, clean drape, and its density does not come at the expense of a looming sense of bulk or inelegance.
As worn
The gent here is a shade over 38 in the chest, and wears the British warm in size S.
Makers of
The coat is made in north-east London. It is a very specialised skill, assembling coats from heavy cloth, and every reasonable step — and the odd unreasonable step — is taken to ensure things are built to last, from the cutting of the pattern to the work on the machine, but without the results being stiff or bulky.
The woollen cloth hails from a mill founded in the Scottish Highlands over two hundred years ago. Carding, blending, spinning, and weaving — it all happens on the same premises. This unique arrangement means that the fleece’s change into top-grade cloth could not be more tightly tuned.
The horn buttons are cut, shaped, and polished by the last horn button-makers in Britain. Relocated from the Midlands to the Cotswolds, they continue a tradition going back to the 18th century. "It is no easy task," claimed William Hutton in 1780, "to enumerate the infinite diversity of buttons made in Birmingham."
