Fishing jacket in cotton cambric in olive drab

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£480.00 — ex VAT

Jacket with detachable hood, made in London, with lightweight (6oz) weatherproof cotton from Scotland, and horn buttons from the Midlands.

Sizing

The fishing jacket fits true to size. The mannequin here is as standard a 40 chest as ever there was, and is thus wearing size M.

XS S M L XL
To fit chest 36 38 40 42 44
Pit-to-pit 20 21 22 23 24
Shoulder 18 18½ 19 19½ 20
Back length 28¼ 28¾ 29¼ 29¾ 30¼
Sleeve from centre-back 34¼ 34½ 34¾ 35 35¼

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 fishing jacket is a casual, five-button number, which has a detachable hood and is about one-third pockets (on which more later). Handy for casting rods on riverbanks, sure — keeping out the rain and offering storage much and manifold — but no less adept at reeling in kind words the rest of the time.
The hood on the jacket is detachable: fixing to the back of the collar-stand with the help of five buttons stationed at regular intervals.
The collar is cut with the single express purpose of fully encircling the neck: gently caressing the back, then the sides, then swooping cleanly round the front to cover the throat and jaw and lower chin at just the right distance to shield them but never niggle them — then be held in place with a little button.
The hood covers all parts of the head save the face — such as is the least requirement for a hood — and, with a shapely three-panel construction, hugs the crown and curves cleanly around the forehead and temple. It also, importantly, is doubled layered, making water ingress nigh-on impossible.
It can also be adjusted, the hood, with the assistance of a little tab around the back. Its connection to the body of the hood is sheltered from precipitation with elementary origami.
You can't spell detachable hood without detach, and the jacket loses none of its charm when the hood is taken away. The collar, with its gently curved corners, can sit obediently down, with a subtle, pleasing roll, or up, or halfway up and halfway down, and every infinitesimal degree in between.
North, south, east, west — the pockets span all directions, from front seam to front seam, all the way around the body, and from waist all the way down to hem, with no real-estate spared. Those at the front are each covered with large flaps, and at the back, the two pockets are covered by a really large flap.
Not only that — there are sideways-accessible warmer pockets at the front, too, built secretly behind the more obvious front pockets.
The main pockets on the jacket have an accordion-like quality to them. They sit neat and tidy when empty, folding in on themselves with silent potential, but will expand outwards in dramatic (for pockets) fashion — into song they burst like the aforementioned accordion — if filled with hand or object.
The size of the pockets would be for nought if they were prone to ushering in the elements after a week of wear. The flaps, however, are as firm as they are sizeable, and moreover have a hidden button-fastening built into their undersides. None shall enter nor exit without full written permission.
The jacket has construction both useful and novel. It has a saddle shoulder, which works like a raglan, with seams running up into the neck, and gives a soft line over the shoulder. But then straddling those seams is a panel, providing two additional layers of cloth between man and outside world.
The buttons on the jacket are horn, dark in colour and matte in finish. Because each is a thing of nature, they each differ subtly in shade and marking, one to the next. The jacket has a fly front, with the front buttons hidden away when fastened, making them unlikely to catch on fishing hooks and other everyday snags.
The pockets on the inside of the jacket are less assuming than those on the outside. There are chest pockets on the left and right sides, plus another pocket of the same design, but wider and deeper, down below on the right side, which is surely a candidate ideal for keeping safe a detachable hood.
Meanwhile, the jacket 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.
Crisp, light cotton from Scotland, this, with a water-repellent finish. It has a very high number of fine threads per inch, so is smoother, stronger, and, crucially in this case, better in the rain than your average cotton. It is highly breathable, too, and is highly adept at wicking moisture away from the body.

As worn

The gentleman here has a chest of 38, and seems very happy to be wearing the jacket in his usual size of S.
Same man, same jacket, same size — only it's not the same jacket, of course, because of the colour.

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.
The cotton comes from Scotland, from a mill on the coast, where the making of heavy, waxed, and otherwise element-proof materials emerged in hand, centuries ago, with local seafaring trades. Industry-strength cottons finished in industry-leading ways is very much the order of the day here.
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

First, a few words about the fishing jacket that I've been wearing the last few weeks. It's an absolute joy to wear, and I greatly enjoy the design, which is a perfect mix of functionality (big pockets, rain protection) and style / originality (massive back pockets, the interesting collar).

So says a man in Portugal about his fishing jacket in cotton cambric in March 2023.