Work jacket in cotton stay-wax in olive drab
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£420.00 — ex VAT
Work jacket, made in London, with cotton stay-wax from Scotland — a high-count, high-performance cotton that performs like a waxed cloth with none of the sticky consequences — and with horn buttons from the West Midlands.
Sizing
The work jacket fits true to size, so the wooden person here, who is as standard a 40 chest as ever there has been, is happily 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 | 27½ | 27¾ | 28 | 28¼ | 28½ |
| Sleeve from centre-back | 34¼ | 34¾ | 35¼ | 35¾ | 36¼ |
The work jacket is a five-button number, fairly short and mostly straight in the body. It's an easy all-rounder. It has a collar of middling size, with gently rounded points, and which is cut such that it caresses the neck when up, but sits pleasingly proud and round when down. No sloppy concavity here.
The buttons on the jacket are solid horn — dark in shade and matte in finish — and each is a little different from one to the next. They are in that regard as if alpha-keratin snowflakes — such is the beauty of being a product of a high-grade natural material, rather than, say, a plastic replica.
The jacket has what looks like a classic set-in sleeve, such as you expect on a jacket of this type. But, on closer examination, it can be seen to be open at the armpit. This is entirely hidden with arms at ease but is, nevertheless, a truly cutting-edge-in-1890 source of ventilation for this doughty and durable work jacket.
The jacket has many pockets — some more obvious than others. The main pockets certainly are obvious, spanning as they do the entire front of the jacket. They're best thought of as buckets for all and every belonging — drop it in there, care and precision be darned — and the insouciant stuffing of the hand.
There is a chest pocket on the right. It is quite a large one, as such pockets go. With the main pockets mentioned above, it brings the pocket count on the jacket up to three, though that's just those external.
The chest pocket is mirrored on the left by the stitching of an internal pocket (which, sandwiched between the inner layers, is accessible only by digging around, and is thus best thought of as two-thirds secret). All of these pockets are strengthened at points of wear and tear with tough little bar-tacks.
The fifth and final pocket on the jacket is on the inside, on the left side as worn. It is precisely the right dimensions and coordinates for the stuffing of mobiles and plastic cards. Taking this final pocket into account, pocketing is thought to cover about three-eighths of the work jacket's surface area.
There are side-adjusters towards the back of the jacket, at waist height, for adjusting the fit. Some like their work jackets boxy, some like some shape: the adjusters here do their best to satisfy all desires.
The armholes on the jacket are very slightly lapped, which gives a subtle but definitely-there depth at the shoulder. Not just for show, either: the lapping shields the armhole seam from the rigours of the outside world, prolonging durability, and is a trapping of thoughtful workwear since the year dot.
The sleeves are a standard sort of width, but they taper sharply at the elbow and fasten snugly around the wrist with gusset-laden cuffs.
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. Indeed, despite the outer cloth being so firm and rigid, the "putting on" experience is as if rendered in Teflon. The sleeves are lined with the same cloth.
Behold cotton stay-wax, which is mid-weight cotton heat-treated with a blend of emulsified waxes. It behaves just like waxed cloth in wet weather, but is bone-dry to touch. Also like waxed cloth, it quickly acquires a parchment-like patina — "chalk marks", as some folks call them — from every fold and crease.
As worn
The gent here is 6'1", 11½ stone, and as standard a 38 chest as you could ever hope to meet. The jacket he's wearing here, then, is a size S, and it is arguably just right.
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 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
I picked up the jacket yesterday. It is an absolutely stunning masterpiece! In particular, the ventilation is very neat.
A happy man in Germany, and his work jacket in heavy corduroy, in May 2020.
The jacket has just safely arrived and I am very pleased. It fits very well due to using your size chart, is of a substantial cord, and the quality of manufacture and design are self-evident. I will no doubt purchase other items in the future.
So spoke a man in the north-west, who purchased the work jacket in very heavy cord in September 2019.
Yet another beautiful (and functional) thing.
Feedback from a chap in London, who picked up the work jacket in heavy cord in October 2018.
As with my overshirt, I am very pleased with the work jacket, too. Your things are very distinctive, without being at all gimmicky, and are beautifully made. Thank you.
On the heels of an overshirt acquired one week earlier, this gent bought the jacket in melton in August 2017.
After a brief detention in a mountain-top post office, the [work] jacket has arrived and is unsurprisingly delightful.
This gent bought a rare thing indeed — the jacket in wool-angora — in September of 2016.