Camiel Fortgens Simple Jacket

Nylon at a medium weight is an unusual cloth for a jacket that is not technical outerwear. It is strong, it is light for its density, it does not crease, and it takes a matte black better than almost any natural fiber, which is why a plain nylon jacket reads as flat and solid rather than as sporty. The record calls it reconstructed, which is a claim about how it was made rather than how it looks, and the unfinished hems are the visible half of that: edges left cut where a jacket of this kind would normally be bound, faced, or turned. The name is doing what the names in this house usually do, which is to describe the garment plainly and let the making be the surprise.

A black jacket that is neither a blazer nor a windbreaker is a real gap, and this one fills it without resorting to either. The weight is what makes it work through three seasons.

Reconstruction is the method this house is built on, and this is the plainest garment it appears in.

One hundred percent nylon, made in Ukraine. Described as reconstructed, with unfinished hems and a relaxed fit. Medium weight. Color: Black.

Relaxed rather than oversized, so it goes over a shirt or a light knit without needing to be sized up. Nylon has no give and no recovery, which means the fit you try on is the fit you keep. Unfinished hems on a synthetic behave differently from unfinished hems on a cotton: nylon frays less and holds its cut edge for longer.

Over the Boxy Shirt. Over the Big Tee LS with the 150% Pants. Over the Cocktail Dress, which is the pairing that reads least obvious and works best.

Nylon washes easily and cool, and its enemy is heat rather than water: a hot wash, a tumble dryer, or a direct iron will glaze or melt the surface, and none of that reverses. Wash cool, hang to dry away from a radiator, and press through a cloth if at all. Our care guidance covers the rest.

The Oversized Worker Jacket is polyamide, part of it recycled, cut oversized on a vintage silhouette. Everything we carry from Camiel Fortgens is listed together.