Engineered Garments Bedford Jacket- Red Rip Stop

Ripstop is a plain weave with a stronger yarn dropped in at regular intervals, usually every few millimetres, so that the cloth carries a faint grid you can see if you hold it to the light. The grid is structural. A tear that starts in a plain weave runs until something stops it, and in ripstop the reinforcing thread is the thing that stops it, which is why the cloth was developed for parachutes and then went everywhere that weight mattered more than durability normally allows. In cotton rather than nylon it stays breathable and takes a dye deeply, and it stays light. A ripstop jacket weighs a fraction of what a duck canvas one does and gives up less than you would expect.

That is the argument for cutting the Bedford in it. The model is the house’s calling card, a sports coat with the tailoring subtracted, and it is usually made in something substantial: moleskin, canvas, wool. In cotton ripstop the same boxy body, button front, and four patch pockets become a jacket you can wear in warm weather and pack without ceremony. The grid gives the surface a texture at close range that a plain cotton does not have, and the light hand lets the shape sit differently, closer to a shirt jacket than to outerwear.

Why we selected it

We wanted the Bedford in a cloth that works from spring through autumn rather than only in the cold, and ripstop is the one that does it without turning the jacket into a windbreaker. It is the same garment with its weight taken away.

Engineered Garments re-cuts its core models every season in whatever cloth the season is about, which is why the Bedford exists in moleskin, in duck canvas, and in this.

The colour

Red on a light cloth is a different colour from red on a heavy one. Ripstop takes a dye deeply and returns more light off its grid than a napped or a woven-dense cotton does, so this reads clean and bright rather than deep. It sits well against natural, indigo, and olive, and it does not want to be next to another strong colour.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent cotton ripstop, made in the USA. Boxy body with a button front and four patch pockets. Colour: Red.

Fit notes

Boxy and cut to hang from the shoulder, so size it on the shoulder. Ripstop is light and has very little body, so this version drapes closer to the frame than the moleskin or the canvas Bedford does and will show what is underneath it more. It creases readily and shakes most of it out.

Styling

Over the Polo Shirt in white with the Sailor Pant in olive. Over the Work Shirt with the Painter Pant. Open, as a shirt jacket, which is what the weight of this cloth invites and the heavier Bedfords do not.

Care

Wash cool and hang to dry. Ripstop dries quickly and does not need a machine to finish it, and heat is the one thing that will damage the hand of the cloth. Wash a saturated red alone the first time. Our cotton care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The same ripstop in olive is the Bedford Jacket in olive cotton ripstop. In the heavier cloths, the Bedford Jacket in black moleskin and the Bedford Jacket in red duck canvas. The Loiter Jacket in olive nylon is the ripstop idea in a synthetic yarn. Everything we carry from Engineered Garments is listed together.