Before you know it, it’s there for life’s important moments, too.
I think a jacket is a garment that inevitably makes you feel slightly self-conscious.
More polished than a shirt, and more refined than a blouson.
That is precisely what makes it useful, but on the other hand, you need at least some feeling of “I’m going to wear a jacket today.”
I have always found that feeling a little difficult.
Good evening. This is Matsushima from cantáte.
<cantáte>
"Linen Unstructured Tailored Jacket"
¥313,500 TAX IN
The jacket we made this time is, at first glance, a refined tailored jacket.
It has lapels, hair canvas in the chest, and a slight amount of fullness at the sleeve heads.It is made properly, like a jacket.
But when you put it on, it is far lighter than you imagined.
It looks neat, yet you do not need to feel guarded in it.
This time, I would like to begin by explaining why.
Can you see the hair canvas with its hand-pick stitching?
When people hear “light jacket,” they may imagine one made lighter by removing the interlining, simplifying the inside, or generally reducing the construction.
But this time, it is not that straightforward.
The necessary tailoring is properly built in where it is needed.
It also uses hair canvas.But only as far as the chest.
There is no canvas below the waist. While retaining the necessary structure in the upper body to create the jacket’s character, unnecessary stiffness is reduced progressively toward the hem.
So, it looks proper, but feels light when worn.
It looks structured, yet air can actually pass through it.It is made to retain as little of the tension distinctive to a jacket as possible.
The so-called unconstructed jacket, with lining only in the sleeves.
The inside is treated the same way.The structural seams are finished with enclosed seams.
By finishing the seams in a wrapped manner without exposing the seam allowances, we not only keep the inside clean, but also minimize the visual presence of the seam allowances themselves.
That said, it is not a matter of making everything soft.
Hand hemming is used in areas prone to stiffness and wherever the fit needs refining. Rather than securing everything at once by machine, each necessary point is fastened by hand.
It is only a small detail, but the accumulation of such details changes how a garment moves.
Plenty of hand gathering at the sleeve heads
The sleeve heads are also given a modest amount of fullness.
The sleeves are not exaggerated; it is barely noticeable at a glance. But this small amount of extra room allows the arms to move naturally, while the shoulders settle quietly along the body’s curves.
Clothing is not shaped by its visible parts alone.
In fact, garments that feel most natural when worn are often finely adjusted in places you cannot see. This jacket is made in that way as well.
The reinforcement method is the same as that used for the slacks.
The areas of the out pockets that bear stress are reinforced with hand-sewn bartacks.
What we use is a fabric woven from two strands of thick-count linen held together.It is then dyed with sulfur dye.
When new, it has a certain firmness for suiting fabric.The color is deep, with a touch of stiffness.
It is somewhat different from the soft, lightweight fabric people typically imagine when they hear linen.
But this is where the interesting part of the fabric begins. Sulfur dyes gradually lose their color through repeated wear and friction.
The cuffs, elbows, and edges of the pockets. The character gradually changes from the areas that come into frequent contact with the body, and a vintage-like fade begins to appear.
At the same time, the linen itself loosens and relaxes the more it is worn.
The buttons are made of buffalo horn and attached by hand, one by one.
This is not merely for appearance; the thread tails are left slightly longer so fingers can slip in easily, and the height is adjusted for easy fastening and unfastening.
The fabric, initially stiff, gradually softens as it is worn, moved in, and given time.It is not only the color that changes, but the texture as well.
It is not finished when it is new.
Rather, it is perfectly fine for it to feel slightly unfamiliar at first. As the wearer’s movements become part of it, wrinkles remain, the color fades, and little by little it becomes that person’s garment.This fabric was made with those changes in mind.
A broad bean-shaped armhole, and hand-sewn sleeve lining attachment
The sleeve base is gathered with pick stitching so that the lining does not bunch up inside.
When excess lining gathers or twists after you put your arm through the sleeve, it feels surprisingly unpleasant. So we secure only the necessary points finely, allowing the sleeve lining to settle naturally.
Linen is inevitably thought of as a summer fabric.
Of course, it really is good in summer. Air passes through it, and even when you sweat, it is less likely to cling to your skin. There are countless reasons to wear it on hot days.
But if you ask whether that means you cannot wear it the moment September arrives, that is not the case.
Autumn is good. Winter is good. Spring is good. In other words, I think it is good all year round.
That said, not just anything will do.
Only properly tailored clothing earns the privilege of linen worn all year round.
The collar is a single-piece collar without a crescent-shaped collar stand.
In turn, we thoroughly shape it through pressing so that it follows the line naturally from the neck to the shoulders.
The area around the collar is also secured finely with pick stitching. Not to hold it rigidly in place, but to properly preserve room for movement.
Not decorative design, but a meaningful collar gorge and a hand-sewn collar canvas.
If you wore a thin, lightweight linen jacket that plainly said “summer” in December, I would admittedly be a little concerned.
But if the shoulders sit properly, the chest has structure, and the garment stands properly as clothing, there is no need for the season to be limited simply because the material is linen.
If anything, linen worn in winter looks stylish.
I think anyone who works in clothing will understand this.
Clothing shop people really do love linen in winter.
Among materials that settle naturally into the season, such as wool and cashmere, the slightly dry texture of linen enters the mix. That incongruity is what makes it good.
Linen worn in summer is the obvious choice.
But linen worn in winter has a certain twist.
Clothing shops are weak to that feeling of being just slightly out of step.
Besides, not everyone in the world can simply wear a T-shirt because it is hot.
There are people who need to dress properly even in midsummer. Some evenings, when you are going to a restaurant, you feel that it would be better to wear a jacket.
And above all, we are a clothing shop.
It is 35 degrees outside. The cicadas are singing. And yet the shop floor is already in autumn and winter.
By the latter half of August, we are already displaying wool and leather. In a shop like that, the staff cannot exactly be the only ones wearing shorts and sandals.
Clothing shops have their own seasons, separate from the actual temperature.
Linen tailoring is just right for those slightly unreasonable periods, too.
It looks proper, but it is not stifling. Even beside autumn and winter clothes, it does not feel as though you are carrying summerwear over from another season.
You can wear it as it is when spring arrives, and of course it works well in summer.
By autumn, the color will have begun to fade a little, and by winter, it will have softened from how it was at first. Thinking of it that way, I believe it is less a garment to wear according to the season than one to spend time with across the seasons.
That is why I do not want you to treat this jacket too delicately.
Rather than worrying about wrinkles or avoiding the slightest abrasion, I want you to wear it normally. It will gradually soften and fade a little each time you wear it.
This fabric suits it better if you do not stop that process of change.
Tailored jackets are often thought to be right only when kept in pristine condition. Of course, there are clothes like that.
But what I wanted to make this time was the opposite.
The shape is refined. The tailoring is proper. Even so, you do not have to wear it in a particularly formal way.
For work on hot days, slightly more formal restaurants, and clothing shops that have to get ahead of the seasons.
And for people who have an inexplicable fondness for linen in winter, too.
After several years of wear, the color has faded at the sleeves and elbows, the linen has softened, and it has become slightly worn.
I think they look better then than they did when they were new.
When I was younger, there was also a period when I thought clothes looked better when they were clean.
There was a time when I wanted to wear clothes carefully, avoiding dirt and preserving them as close to new as possible. I think young Matsushima probably felt the same way.
But these days, I find myself drawn more to clothes that bear clear traces of having been properly worn.
How its owner has treated it. How much they have worn it.It is more interesting when even those kinds of moments remain in the clothing.
It is refined, but you do not need to feel constrained. You do not need to worry too much about the season.
Before you know it, it will surely be there for life’s important moments, too.
I want you to wear it until it becomes completely worn in.
This jacket only truly comes into its own after that.
cantáte 松島 紳
