Anorak in midnight blue Ventile Ripstop

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£290.00 — ex VAT

Four-button jacket with hood, made in London, with rain-proof Ventile Ripstop from Lancashire and dark horn buttons from the West Midlands.

Sizing

The anorak fits true to size, and thus the mannequin — the most standard 38 in all the world — wears a size S. However, please note that the anorak was designed to be worn with nothing much more than a t-shirt or shirt underneath, so is cut fairly slim in the body; if you want a roomier fit, then go one size up.

XS S M L XL
To fit chest 36 38 40 42 44
Pit-to-pit 19 20 21 22 23
Shoulder 17 17½ 18 18½ 19
Sleeve length 23½ 23½ 24 24½ 24½
Back length 26 26½ 26½ 27 27½
The anorak is made from Ventile, which is a cotton of legendary weather-proof capabilities. Water, see, rolls right off it. It was invented in Manchester in the mid-1930s and is made from 100% cotton. It works because it is so tightly woven; made from the finest 2% of the world’s cotton crop.
And not just any Ventile, this. This is new Ventile Ripstop — which has a grid-like cotton super-structure running through it. This makes the cloth stronger — and, as its name suggests, the intersections in the grid serve to stop rips if the jacket is ever snagged on barbed wire or brambles.
The anorak has a large collar, beneath which sits a three-piece hood, which clicks on and off with five brass press-studs (below-right). There are umpteen ways to arrange the collar and hood, such as fully fastened, with the two-button chin-strap done-up and the collar buttoned across the neck (below-left).
Of course, with the hood being detachable, the anorak can also be worn without it (the reverse is also true, though is ill-advised ). Without the hood, the jacket takes on a simpler, lighter, and somewhat more relaxed aspect.
The seam, which runs all the way around the anorak conceals two large, deep, pockets, which can also be entered from the side.
The cuff straps offer the option of two degrees of tightness.
The buttons — the four at the front, and the two at the cuff — are made from horn, and are dark in colour and matte in finish. Being as they are an entirely natural thing, each button is a little different, from one to the next — varying in colour and nuance.
The anorak is lined in the upper back with lightweight black cotton. The lining is a "buggy" style, with two curved cuts of cloth overlapping across the shoulders. All exposed seams inside the jacket, meanwhile, are neatly bound with cotton.

Makers of

The jacket is made at an outerwear factory in London: the best, many agree, in the capital. The jacket is cut by the hands of a cutter with some 30 years in the trade, and sewn by one of four seamsters whose meticulousness and pursuit of perfection would be caricature were the end results not always so good.
Ventile was invented in Manchester in the 1930s. It is a high-performance cloth — being put to use over the years for all manner of high-octane and outdoor pursuits — but is simply an intensely tight weave of natural cotton. Water hits the cotton, cotton swells up, water has nowhere to go: easy.
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."

So they say

I want to thank you for your excellent service and for the Ventile anorak. It fits perfectly and I could not be happier.

So spoke a gent about the anorak in the Ventile in March 2017.

I received the items today. They are all fantastic and top notch, as anticipated. The colours on the sweater and the weight of the Ventile on the anorak are of particular note. I'm very excited to wear them for many years to come, and add to my collection of amazing garments from you guys.

Kind words about the anorak in Ventile from back in 2016.