Harris Wharf London Women Stand Up Collar Blazer

Raw edges on a tailored jacket are a statement about how the garment is built. A conventional blazer hides its construction: facings are turned, seams are bound, the lining covers everything, and the finished object gives away nothing about how it was assembled. Leave the edges raw and the opposite happens. The cut edge of the cloth is visible at the hem, at the front, and at the pocket, which means the cloth has to be good enough to be looked at in section and the cutting has to be accurate enough to survive being seen. It also means the jacket weighs less and moves more. The shape is boxy, which is the right partner for a raw edge, because a boxy jacket hangs from the shoulder rather than being shaped to the waist, and hanging is what an unbound edge does best. Two patch pockets, applied to the outside rather than cut into the cloth, follow the same logic. And there is a third button at the stand-up collar, so the jacket can be closed all the way to the throat, which turns a blazer into something much closer to outerwear in about two seconds.

Why we selected it

Raw-edged tailoring is easy to do badly and this is done well, which you can see at the hem rather than having to take on trust. The collar button is the detail that makes it a jacket for outside as well as in.

Raw edges and boxy volumes are the vocabulary Harris Wharf London built its women’s tailoring on, and this jacket uses all of it at once rather than borrowing a detail.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent virgin wool, in a Loro Piana cloth, made in Italy. Boxy cut with raw-edge finishing throughout, two patch pockets, a two-button front, and an additional button at the stand-up collar. Color: Black and White.

We do not describe a lining, a vent, or the weave of the cloth.

Fit notes

Boxy means it does not follow the waist, so it fits at the shoulder and everything below is volume. That makes it forgiving through the body and unforgiving at the shoulder, which is the trade a boxy jacket always makes. Patch pockets add a little bulk exactly where a hand goes, so it sits differently loaded than empty.

Styling

Black and white cloth is functionally a neutral and will go with anything, so the decision is silhouette rather than color. Boxy over narrow is the reliable version: a straight trouser, a slim knit, a pencil skirt. Collar buttoned for the coat version, open for the jacket version.

Care

Dry clean. Do not trim, tidy, or oversew the raw edges, which are the finish rather than an unfinished state. Our general guidance on wool covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Stand Up Collar Blazer Honeycomb carries the same stand-up collar and the same collar button, knitted in cotton rather than woven. The Stand Up Collar Blazer is pressed virgin wool with a collar that stands or lies flat, and the Short Loden Light Pressed Wool is a knitted pressed wool cut as a short A-line coat. Everything we carry from Harris Wharf London is listed together.