This is the second article on my washable bespoke cotton jacket pictured above, made by Whitcomb & Shaftesbury. For information on why a washable jacket is unusual, and how this one has worn and washed so far, see that article. Today’s is a review of the jacket itself, excluding the washability.
A tailored cotton jacket is great. Its style makes it formal, but its material makes it casual. It’s hard wearing and functional, yet it can dress up a T-shirt and jeans.
Linen is nice too, and my slubby linen DB has many of the same attributes. But you can really beat up a cotton jacket – plunge your hands in the hip pockets, overload the other pockets, chuck it in a bag, sleep in it in the corner of a carriage – and a good one will look all the better for it.
Linen isn’t quite as tough, and a summer cotton jacket is more like a warm-weather equivalent of tweed or corduroy in that way. It’s also easy to repair, even patch.
Perhaps most importantly, it makes fine tailoring more approachable.
If I have one ongoing battle on Permanent Style, it’s finding and showing ways in which fine tailoring can be modern and relevant, not fussy or antiquated. A bespoke cotton jacket that fits beautifully, but looks like you have actually slept in it, is a great way to do that.
I’ve had cotton suits over the years, but few cotton jackets. One reason is the material – the 9oz (255g) twill that’s standard for suitings can make a very nice suit but it’s a little flimsy for a knockabout jacket.
There are heavier cottons, mostly sold for trousers, but they are usually too stiff to be comfortable as a jacket. There’s also moleskin and corduroy, but those are more for winter.
Whitcomb & Shaftesbury sourced a Japanese cotton* to make this jacket – or rather, sourced it for another customer, which I then saw and asked to make something similar.
It’s only a little heavier than those twills I used in the past, at 300g, but it’s not made like a traditional tailoring cotton. It’s coarser, and denser, which makes it casual and tougher. I also find the density means it stands away from the body, making it cooler.
This type of cotton is not generally used for tailoring partly because it can’t be worked – tailored – to the same extent. But Whitcomb did an admirable job shaping it, creating a nice bespoke fit despite also not having any canvas or padding.
I did simplify the design from the other customer’s jacket. He was after a more traditional safari-jacket look, with tabs, epaulettes and so on. I wanted something stripped back and simpler, with that same aim of being subtle and easier to wear.
In fact, I only went with the inverted pleats you can see on the pockets at the last minute. I’m glad I did, as they’re a lovely detail and don’t make the jacket look that fussy. But my lesson from experiments in the past had always been to go simpler, whenever I’m in doubt.
The edges of those pleats are lovely, betraying their handmade nature in a very subtle way, particularly as I’ve washed the jacket.
These handmade details stand out everywhere on a bespoke cotton suit, as I’ve discussed in the past. Some of them include:
the pick stitching, clearly not the AMF-machine-fake style you get on ready-made jackets
the hand-sewn buttonholes that stand out more for being on a stiff material
the stitching on the inside of the sleeve that you can see coming through around the cuff
the hand-attached collar that’s visible when you pop the collar
one just for bespoke nerds: the cut used in the upper chest to give me some shape in the chest, in the absence of hand padding
I did get one or two style things wrong though.
In retrospect I would have had the gorge lower on the lapel – I’m not sure how I missed that in the fitting process, as these days I’d always go lower. Although it doesn’t matter too much as I wear the collar more up than down.
And we should have checked the functionality of the collar latch. It’s a nice detail, tucked away and buttoned back, and I’ll never use it. But it would still have been nice if it could fasten across the neck comfortably, and it’s a bit high to do that.
In terms of how I’ve found I wear the jacket, it’s exactly what I hoped – with a shirt and tailored trousers but also with jeans and T-shirt.
As per usual, I’ve shot in here with both to illustrate. The thing that makes the jacket particularly easy to wear with jeans is that the collar rolls open nicely when popped up. Bespoke jackets often don’t do that naturally, because they have more structure.
It’s neater with the T-shirt tucked in (but blousing out a little) and interestingly I quite like the jacket buttoned to the top of the three buttons, more as I would a chore jacket.
The tailored combination is in my now very standard palette of cream, brown and black (I first fell in love with that combination during this shoot six years ago I think).
This is a fairly plain version of it, but it’s enlivened by the pop of colour from the orange-tinted lenses in the sunglasses, and the snuff-suede colour of the Métier tote.
The trousers can be fairly smart – high twists or linens, as here – but the shirt has to be fairly casual. Something in a denim or chambray, or a lightweight cotton like this one, and preferably a soft collar.
This jacket cost £2400 including VAT from Whitcomb & Shaftesbury, made bespoke. Other colours available in the same material include black, navy, olive and beige.
Clothes pictured:
‘East-West Passerby’ tote by Métier in Suede Marrakech
Bespoke trousers by Whitcomb & Shaftesbury in Art du Lin (covered previously here)
Black alligator belt by Rubato
Boy Scout shirt by Husbands in white voile (not currently available)
Loafers by Alessandro Gasperini (being covered soon)
Zepherin sunglasses by Jacques Marie Mage (also being covered soon)
PS Tapered T-shirt
Vintage Levi’s 501s
Vintage leather and webbing belt
Vintage Ray-Ban Caravan gold sunglasses
*The cotton is not usually available to buy by the cut length, as the mill does not usually serve tailors. Whitcomb buys it by the roll, in the same way as it does for its chinos.
