A four-button jacket, this, with a stand collar, five pockets, and a drawstring waist. That's it, in simple terms. But this is also a jacket with a few surprises up its sleeve (and side-body and shoulder). The drawstring, for starters, which is hidden at the front below two large, floating chest pockets.
The drawstring is leather, and emerges in the front sections of the interior of the jacket. It is loosened or tightened with the aid of a sliding knot. It doesn't have to be tightened, of course, in which case the body hangs untrammelled, or it may be tightened to its zenith, pulling in the waist section no end.
The airweave is a reproduction of a cotton favoured by the British Army in the middle portion of the last century. It is strong and hard-wearing, and made with long-staple cotton yarn for a clean drape and smart lustre. Has an open weave, too, for good heat-transfer and excellent ventilation.
Four buttons adorn the front — although when fastened are concealed from view by virtue of the fly-front. They are made with horn, are pretty large, and have a matte finish. Being as they are made with natural horn, each is different from one to the next, as if spotted and streaked alpha-keratin snowflakes.
The collar fastens with two small press-studs. It is cut to sit away from the neck at the front, just a little, so never rubbing beards up the wrong way. And unlike such collars do sometimes, it never sits convex or collapses on itself. Instead, it is always round, skimming the sides of the neck and the nape at the back.
There's what's known as a "patrol-pleat" or "action-back" at the rear, permitting greater range of forward movement thanks to the extra cloth it hides from view. Also hidden from view, concealed beneath two layers of cloth, is a panel of airtex mesh, so the jacket snaps back into shape post-stretch.
The field jacket has a secret. It doesn't have a shoulder seam. Instead, thanks to a most unusual method of assembly, it has a very adventurous body seam, which runs along where a shoulder seam would ordinarily be found. And, rather than looping around the pit, this seam makes a b-line for the body ...
... where it is interrupted by a chest pocket. This has a bellows construction, held to the body only at the top: hanging freely and doing what gravity tells it when the wearer bends over. It is bisected by a pleat, which in a pleasing flourish of alignment, runs atop the above-mentioned front body seam.
Lift the chest pocket up and what do you see? The drawstring channel. Bar-tacks, meanwhile, are rife. They strengthen all points of stress to ensure the jacket can be used fairly heavily for a fairly long time without complaint. The base of the patrol pleat, for instance, and at a multitude of points on the pockets.
The cuffs fasten with a single press-stud. They're quite tight. There's a pleat at the front of the sleeve which helps with that.
The jacket is fully lined with a slinky satin, making donning and undonning it a breeze, and helping to reduce friction with whatever is worn underneath. There is also one additional pocket on the inside of the jacket — a classic in-breast pocket, on the left side as worn, for mobile phones or wallets.