What we have here is a long, single-breasted coat. It has a one-piece raglan sleeve, which gives a great deal of room and movement in the upper body, and lends it well to layering in winter. "Balmacaan" is a traditional name for this style of coat — from the Balmacaan forest in Scotland.
The coat has a collar of significant size, which is cut to sit straight and cleanly when down, and to really hug the neck when up. Beneath the collar is a throat-strap. This buttons across, one side to the other, and — by bridging the gap between collar and front — guards the neck against wind.
The coat has a front of five buttons — all of them real horn, dark and matte and tortoiseshell in colour. Because each one is a natural product, rather than an ersatz replica of horn, they are all utterly unique — differing in shade and markings. The same goes for the buttons everywhere else on the garment.
There are welt pockets on either side at the front of the coat. Just the right height and depth, these pockets, for plunging one's hands inside.
The above-mentioned pockets have a secret: they have a channel through which hands can pass to reach the inside of the coat. History has it this originates in the army — for grabbing a concealed grenade at a moment's notice. Today, it is handy for grabbing objects inside the pockets of a jacket worn beneath.
One other pocket on the coat resides inside, on the left-side as worn. It is a chest pocket of standard wallet- or mobile-size.
The coat is half-lined with a merino-wool twill — a smooth, breathable, and comfortable material, flecked in appearance — from a mill in West Yorkshire. It is a fine outer cloth in its own right, but here is happy to play backup to the cotton outer.
The coat is made from cotton — a twill, with the trademark diagonal weave. It is heavy and thick, but has a wonderfully soft brushed quality. The collar and front facing of the coat is made with moleskin, meanwhile, which is an even softer, more brushed type of cotton, and is very good against the neck.
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 cloth is sourced from a mill in Lancashire, in north-west England. Cottons have rolled off its line for nearly a century and a half. Industry-leading methods of weaving, dyeing, and finishing — unimproved in decades — along with steadfast adherence to quality, result in some truly first-rate cloth.
The wool lining hails from a mill founded in the Heavy Woollen District of West Yorkshire in the 1800s. 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 were cut, shaped, and polished by the last such factory in Britain (now defunct). It was part of a tradition in the Midlands first linked to the meat industry of the 18th century. "It is no easy task," said William Hutton in 1780, "to enumerate the infinite diversity of buttons made in Birmingham."
