Pyjama top in merino-cotton oxford in lead

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£250.00 — ex VAT

Light, four button jacket, made in London, with cloth of middling-weight (11oz) — blending merino wool with soft cotton — from County Donegal, and horn buttons from the Midlands.

Sizing

This version of the pyjama top fits entirely true to the marked size. The mannequin here, for instance, is a standard 38 — so standard he has it stamped on his chest — and so wears size S.

XS S M L XL
To fit chest 36 38 40 42 44
Pit-to-pit 20 21 22 23 24
Back length 27¾ 28 28¼ 28½ 28¾
Sleeve from centre-back 32¼       32¾       33¼       33¾       34¼      

Caring

Let no bushes be beaten around: the top is woollen, so is best serviced by a dry-cleaner. If washed at home, in a machine or by hand, cold water is the only order of the day. The flip-side of this extra effort is that merino wool is anti-microbial, anti-odour, and anti-daily grime, so won't acquire anywhere near the same grubbiness as the same thing in other cloth.

The pyjama top isn't really for bedtime. Rather, it is a light, unstructured jacket, with some of the trappings of old-fashioned jim-jams. It has an open collar, which falls low, and is suited well to being worn in a louche and laid-back manner — over a t-shirt, say, or light shirt — ideally in spring and summer.
A curious type of collar, this — previously found only on uniform jackets in the middling second half of the last century. It is asymmetric, in that one side — the under-side when fastened — has a small notch where the curve of the collar begins, enabling things to sit nice and flush when fastened.
This is a half-raglan sleeve — halfway between a set-in sleeve and a full raglan — and is what gives the pyjama top its blend of soft shoulder, like a full raglan, but with less smart and sporty lines. The sleeves are lined with a slinky satin to allow arms to slide in and out without friction.
There is a split at the end of the sleeves, which facilitates the rolling up of sleeves. Again — the pyjama top is a resolutely relaxed affair, and outwardly encourages such gestures when the going gets warm.
A large patch pocket with turn-down detail is stationed at the chest of the pyjama top. It is deep, the pocket, and positioned quite low at the chest so the treasures stashed within may be very readily retrieved. The turn-down detail, meanwhile, rolls over on itself and is held down with bar-tacks.
The buttons on the top are large, solid horn — dark in colour 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 cloth is half merino, half cotton, and the weft of the former and the warp of the latter are woven into an oxford-like basket-weave. The merino half makes it, predictably, woolly and warm; the latter smoother than a full-on woollen material, and surprisingly breathable for a material so thick.

As worn

Him, here, is as standard a 38 as ever there was. He is thus wearing a size S.

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 cloth is woven by a linen mill, a few miles south of Belfast in Northern Ireland. The mill was built at the end of the 1800s, back when Belfast was "Linenopolis". That it's one of the last mills still standing in the area is testament to its exemplary work in the weaving, dying, and finishing of luxury-grade linen.
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 just received the pyjama top today. I dunno what to say! It’s awesome. The fabric, the details, the fit ... You were right about the sizing, as the size S is just what I needed. I’m more than happy with this new kid in my wardrobe, and you can be sure that it won’t be the last from your brand.

Happy words from France, courtesy of a man who picked up the pyjama top in a blend of merino lambswool and cotton in August 2020.