Harris Wharf London Short Loden Light Pressed Wool

A loden is an Alpine coat, and the name properly belongs to the cloth: wool woven and then fulled, which is to say beaten and shrunk in water until the fibers lock together into something dense, weather resistant, and warm out of all proportion to its thickness. Olive is its historical color. What this house has done is arrive at the same place by a different road. The cloth here is knitted and then pressed, so it gains its density from compaction rather than from fulling a woven ground, and the result is lighter and more flexible than a traditional loden while keeping the closed surface and the body that make a loden a loden. Cut short and shaped in an A line, it widens from the shoulder to the hem, which is the coat’s oldest silhouette and the one that lets it be worn over things. The collar is short, so the neck stays open rather than being enclosed. Four buttons on a single-breasted front, and pockets cut wide, which on a coat this length is where the hands actually go.

Why we selected it

We wanted the loden idea without the loden weight, and knitting the cloth and pressing it rather than weaving and fulling it is a real answer to that rather than a lighter version of the same thing. Olive is the color the garment has always been, and there was no reason to improve on it.

Pressed wool that holds a shape without a lining is what Harris Wharf London is for, and applying it to a loden is the clearest case of the method meeting a garment that was already built on the same principle.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent virgin wool, knitted and light pressed, made in Italy with Italian cloth. Unlined. A-line shape with a short collar, four-button single-breasted fastening, long sleeves, and wide pockets. Color: Olive.

Fit notes

An A line widens as it falls, so the fit is decided at the shoulder and the rest is deliberate volume. Unlined means it goes over a knit without the drag a lining creates, and it means the coat is considerably lighter in the hand than it looks. A short loden ends near the hip, so it works over a trouser and over a dress that is longer than it is.

Styling

Olive is a neutral that most people do not treat as one. It sits with black, navy, cream, tan, grey, and denim, and it is at its best with brown, which is the pairing nobody reaches for. Over a knitted dress, over a trouser and a shirt, collar left as it falls.

Care

Dry clean. Pressed wool must never be washed, because the compaction that gives it body is the beginning of a process that a hot wash will finish, and the coat will come back smaller and harder. Our general guidance on wool covers brushing and storage.

Related pieces

The Stand Up Collar Blazer is the same pressed wool cut as a blazer rather than a coat. The Western Jacket is boiled wool left unlined, and the Geometric Dress with Pockets is a knitted virgin wool with raw hems. Everything we carry from Harris Wharf London is listed together.