Engineered Garments Loiter Jacket – Olive Nylon

Micro ripstop is ripstop with the reinforcing grid run at a much finer interval, so that instead of a visible check every few millimetres you get a texture the hand registers before the eye does. In nylon rather than cotton it becomes something a cotton cannot be: nearly weightless, effectively windproof because the weave is so tight, quick to shed water off the face, and dry again within minutes of getting wet. Nylon is also the strongest common apparel fibre by a wide margin, which is why the reinforcing grid in a nylon ripstop is close to insurance rather than necessity.

Cut on the Loiter, the model whose collar buttons all the way to the throat, that combination does something specific. Open, it is a light shirt jacket. Closed, it seals at the neck and becomes a windbreaker, and because the cloth weighs almost nothing the transition costs you no bulk at all. Three front pockets rather than four, which is the model’s own small asymmetry. This is the jacket that lives in a bag from March to November and gets taken out more than anything else in it.

Why we selected it

Every wardrobe needs the light jacket that stops wind and packs to nothing, and nearly all of them are ugly. This one is a real garment that happens to do the job.

Engineered Garments works in technical cloth as readily as in cotton and wool, and the Loiter is a model it has cut in more than one fibre.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent nylon in a lightweight micro ripstop, made in the USA. Three front pockets and a collar that buttons fully closed. Colour: Olive.

Fit notes

Cut square and made to work open or closed, so it needs room at the chest for both. Nylon has no give at all, which matters more than it does in cotton: take the size that lets you reach forward. It packs flat, creases in the bag, and shakes out within a few minutes of being worn.

Styling

Over the Work Shirt with the RF Trousers. Over the Polo Shirt in white with the Sailor Pant in olive. Closed over a crewneck when the wind comes up, which is the whole point of owning it.

Care

Wash cool on a gentle cycle and hang to dry, and keep it away from heat entirely: nylon melts at a temperature an iron reaches easily, and a dryer will glaze the face of the cloth permanently. No fabric softener, which clogs a tight technical weave and takes the water resistance with it. Our care guidance for technical cloth covers the rest.

Related pieces

The same jacket in wool is the Loiter Jacket in wool serge. The Bedford Jacket in olive cotton ripstop is the ripstop idea in a natural fibre, the Sailor Pant in olive is the trouser in the same colour, and the Work Shirt in natural goes underneath. Everything we carry from Engineered Garments is listed together.