Sometime last year, I bought a length of The London Lounge’s Etna cloth - a heavy 20oz cashmere jacketing, made with a double faced grey/ brown herringbone (brown on one side, gray on the other). It’s a wonderful material and I was going to have it made into a jacket until The London Lounge came out with theirbrown herringbone tweed, which is even more in line with what I’ve been looking for. Rougher, fuzzier, and more autumnal, it’s now on its way to Steed to be made into a patch pocketed, single-breasted sport coat.
So now I’m in possession of a double-faced cashmere that I’m not sure what to do with. I thought about selling it back on the market, but it’s such a lovely material that I’d hate to lose it. No, the only way forward is to have something made from it — something unusual enough to make the jacket different from the brown herringbone tweed Steed is making me.
But how can one make a jacket odd?
I considered playing with the button stances. This Huntsman coat, for example, is an unusual 2 roll 1, where the coat is really a single-button piece, but made with a vestigial second button higher up on the chest. There are also Paddock coats, where both buttons are moved up so they can be fastened comfortably. All very interesting, nerdy menswear details, but I fear they may be too awesome for me.
The other option is to get a peak lapel, but single-breasted peak lapels can be a dangerous game. As Simon Crompton once noted, without the longer line on a double-breasted coat, a peak lapel can look awkwardly short. More like the stubby wings on a dead, frozen chicken, rather than the sweeping fins of shark. Plus, in the rare times I’ve seen single-breasted peak lapels look good, they’ve always been on suits. On sport coats, they have a sort of Phineas Cole character that doesn’t feel right on me (though, they may perfectly suit other people).
So now I’m thinking about playing with pocket designs, for which this StyleForum thread – titled “From the Annals of Anglomania” – has nothing but a treasure trove of ideas. In it, one of the forum’s Bay Area members shows off a remarkable collection of bespoke British pieces he’s thrifted over the years. In addition to the notable quality, many of the coats have unusual details. That 2 roll 1 cavalry twill Huntsman, for example, has a uniquely cut equestrian-style back. There’s also this mid-century diamond tweed by Henry Poole with a very cool, curved patch ticket pocket. My favorite might be this 1936 (!) coat from Meyer & Mortimer, which not only features some of the best pattern matching I’ve seen, but also buttoned bellow pockets. StyleForum member Dopey had something similar made a few years ago, but with even more curved bellows. He also owns this neat Huntsman jacket with “scooped” bellow pockets, which he tells me is designed so that the bellows are less likely to droop or gap. Also on the same jacket? A ticket pocket, a zipped-in breast pocket, and an internal poacher’s pocket, so that Dopey is never at a loss for a place to put things.
I’m not sure yet what I’ll ask for on this cashmere jacket, but part of me thinks there should be some buttoned bellow pockets, a half belted back, and possibly a throatlatch, just for kicks. Maybe this whole project will turn into a Frankenstein monstrosity, or maybe it’ll be really awesome. Either way, it’ll be an odd jacket.
