Trucker jacket in heavy cord in rust

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£420.00 — ex VAT

Six-button jacket, made in London, with heavy (14oz) corduroy from a mill in Lancashire, and with brass buttons from the south-west of England and brass loops from the Midlands.

Sizing

The jacket fits true to size, and thus the calico man here, who is as standard a 40 as ever there was, is wearing a size M. However, for the snug, neat look that is commonly associated with jackets of this type — at the expense of layering up, of course — best go down a size.

XS S M L XL
To fit chest 36 38 40 42 44
Pit-to-pit 20 21 22 23 24
Shoulder 17 17½ 18 18½ 19
Back length 26¼ 26½ 27¾ 27 27¼
Sleeve from centre-back 34¼ 34¾ 35¼ 35¾ 36¼
The trucker jacket — road haulier and vehicular logistics personnel jacket to some — packs a great deal into its relatively diminutive form. Take its collar, for starters, which is shapely and full and cut in a slightly hooked shape, and which can be worn just as happily wide open as buttoned to the top.
The jacket has fairly large "warmer" pockets at the front, one on each side — though you perhaps wouldn't realise so at first glance, since they are tucked away entirely out of sight within the pleats that run down the front.
Pockets at the chest, too, built into the jacket's chest seam.
The jacket is, to coin a phrase overused, built to last. The cloth is thick, the seams are turned, and while it is a fairly complex little number, it is designed and engineered in the simplest and cleanest and strongest manner. It is also finished to counter wear-and-tear — e.g. bar-tacks abound, such as at the mouths of pockets.
The chest seam at the front of the jacket is mirrored at the back, where a yoke runs across the shoulder blades. From this yoke emanate two additional pleats — just like those at the front — which run down at approximate kidney coordinates all the way to the hem.
At the back, too, is a belt, which runs between those aforementioned rear pleats, fastening with two brass loops, and allowing the body to be tightened up a little. It's handy if you wish to wear your jacket open, but in a nice and neat fashion, keeping it from swinging around too much at the front.
The buttons on the jacket are, like the loops at the back, solid brass. They are made in the positively prehistoric "lost wax" method, with a single horn button serving as the mould for the crafting of umpteen metal replicas. They have a dull, tarnished finish, and are lacquered so as not to discolour over time.
The sleeves run down to a fairly tight cuff — a pleat at the front of the sleeve helping with this narrowing — and with the under-seam opening up a few inches from the end. It's effectively a shirt-style cuff, but with a large button, or like a denim jacket cuff, but with a button rather than a snap.
With things so eventful on the outside of the jacket, inside, things are kept as clean and as simple as can be, with a chest pocket on the left-side as worn taking the total number of pockets to five.
The jacket is lined halfway down the back with a smooth and slinky satin, cut as a single panel. It helps with sliding the jacket on and off, being as the outer cloth has the potential for friction. The sleeves, too, are lined with the same cloth.
This is corduroy of some substance: heavy, thick, and wide of wale. Still, corduroy being corduroy, despite its stern exterior, deep down this is a very soft cotton — wonderfully smooth and warm against the skin, surprisingly breathable, and with a character enriched with time and wear.

As worn

Him, here, is 6'1", just over 11 stone, and is as standard a 38 chest as ever there was. He is thus wearing a size S. He could arguably go down a size for a slimmer fit, please note, if he intended only to wear it over a thin shirt or t-shirt.

Makers of

The jacket is made by an outerwear factory in north-east London. It is specialised skill, assembling jackets from thick and heavy cloth. The idea is to make something which truly lasts — all highly durable making techniques, heavy fusing, and turned seams — without the result being stiff or bulky.
The cloth is made by a cotton 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 brass hardware is made by a foundry in the West Midlands, which was founded in the 1800s. It is the last such foundry in an area once heaving with them. Its sand-casting method — which sees 940°c molten brass poured by hand from a crucible into sand-made moulds — is ancient and infallible.
The buttons are brass, made using a process known as "lost wax" which has been practiced in Britain for millennia. It sees molten brass poured into a mould — in this case, a mould made with a horn button as its template — until every last nook and cranny has been filled, and then quenched and lightly polished.

So they say

The green trucker has arrived. What a beauty. I wasn't expecting it to have such weight: it’s lovely. For what it's worth. I'd prefer half an inch more on the sleeve length. But you can feel the quality. And I'm loving the lined sleeves: this is the quality detail that generates repeat business.

Happy words from a man in the East Midlands, who acquired the trucker in especially heavy corduroy at the end of August 2021.