Engineered Garments Andover Jacket – Gray

Tropical wool sounds like a contradiction and is not. Wool’s reputation for warmth comes from what a cloth does with air, not from the fibre: a lofted, fulled woollen traps air in a napped surface and holds body heat against the skin. Weave the same fibre from a hard-spun worsted yarn, run it open, and skip the finishing that closes the surface, and the cloth does the opposite. Air moves through it. The fibre still does what wool does best, which is take up moisture from the skin without feeling wet and release it again, and the open weave carries it away. That is why tropical wool outlasted linen and cotton in warm-weather tailoring for most of a century, and why it recovers from a day of sitting in a way that no plant fibre does.

The Andover is this house’s tailored model, darted at the front to follow a chest and carrying four flap pockets instead of the four patch pockets on its workwear siblings. Cut in tropical wool it becomes the summer version of a jacket that is otherwise made in charcoal gaberdine for the cold, and in gray it is the plainest and most useful thing in the model’s run.

Why we selected it

A wool jacket you can wear in July is not obvious and it is not common, and it solves a real problem for anybody who has to look assembled in heat. The alternative is linen, which creases, or cotton, which does not recover.

The Andover is where Engineered Garments addresses tailoring, and it gets re-cut each season in whatever the season needs.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent wool in a lightweight tropical weave, made in the USA. Darted at the front with four flap pockets. Colour: Gray.

Fit notes

The front darts follow the chest, so this is a model to judge on the shoulder and to try on if you can. Tropical wool is light and has more give than a worsted gaberdine, so it moves better and holds a shape less. It creases in wear and recovers overnight on a hanger, which is the fibre doing its work.

Styling

Over the Work Shirt in natural with the Sailor Pant. Over the Polo Shirt in white with the RF Trousers. Gray tropical wool against natural cotton is the summer version of gray flannel against white, and it is the reason to have this jacket rather than a linen one.

Care

Hang it, air it, and brush it rather than cleaning it often. Use a cleaner when it needs one and never press it hot on the face. An open weave takes a hot iron badly and will show it. Our wool care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The same model in a dense winter cloth is the Andover Jacket in charcoal worsted gaberdine, and in cotton the Andover Jacket in beige seersucker. The Folk Jacket is the softer jacket in that same seersucker, and the Work Shirt in natural sits under all three. Everything we carry from Engineered Garments is listed together.