The Winter Stable Jacket

David Coggins might not have a stone house in the Scottish Highlands. But when he’s wearing our new Waxed Winter Stable Jacket, he could almost believe he does.

A good jacket fires the imagination. The new Winter Stable Jacket is familiar in that it has a classic purpose but has been updated, to make that purpose a little more elegant. It might vaguely resemble a jacket you have, but it noticeably improves the proportions, construction and design. This is a jacket that’s better than it needs to be, that invites a compliment, that attracts just the right amount of attention.

I can envision wearing this jacket walking through the moors outside my hillside stone house in the Scottish Highlands. There’s a deerhound at my side, and we’re heading back from the pub to make a fire before a storm rolls in. I’ll dip into the Anthony Powell novel, Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant. But wait! I don’t have a house in the Scottish Highlands – stone or otherwise – but wearing this jacket I feel like I might one day. And that’s the key.

A jacket like this is evocative because versions of it have been in existence for a long time. They look great in the city as well. You know I think it goes well with a knit tie (I think everything goes well with a knit tie). It can be worn with corduroy trousers of a vivid hue if you are the theater critic of a newspaper with a small circulation (or aspire to be). It can be worn with dark jeans and Chelsea boots, if you want to communicate a sense of urbane confidence.

But it’s not just another jacket. This thing has to work, after all. It’s been improved and refined. The reassuring essentials: it’s made in Italy of sturdy waxed cotton, with side vents and three large patch pockets, perfect for that Anthony Powell paperback. There’s a belt at the waist if it’s getting particularly windy, or if you are riding your motorcycle along the coast of the Faroe Islands. For when it’s really brisk, you can button in the casentino fleece gilet as a liner. There’s a corduroy collar, a lining made of flannel shirting: the sort of details that show you’re a little more interesting than you need to be.

In my opinion, the length is just right. It’s long enough that it can be worn over a sport coat, or as a simple rain jacket. The length is both flattering and slightly more formal – less sporty – than shorter jackets. Once you wear this you will enjoy it so much you will secretly hope your other jackets grow a few extra inches at the bottom.

When you see a good stable jacket like this you feel, quite rightly, that you’ve needed it for a long time. It will enter your sartorial rotation at once and instantly be a favorite. It will inspire just a twinge of jealousy among your friends, especially those who were intending to buy it themselves. This is a jacket that intersects with the life you want to live, the life that you deserveto live. Does it come with a house in Scotland? It does not. But it’s the first step towards the dream.

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