Lemaire Boxy Tailored Jacket

Harris Tweed is the only cloth in the world protected by its own Act of Parliament. Under the Harris Tweed Act of 1993 the name can only be used for cloth that has been dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland and then handwoven at the weaver’s own home on the islands, from pure virgin wool, and every length is inspected and stamped with the Orb mark before it leaves. That is not marketing history; it is a legal definition, and it is why the cloth behaves the way it does. Handweaving at domestic tension produces a fabric with more air in it and more variation across its width than a power loom gives, which is why a herringbone in Harris Tweed reads as a living surface with colour shifting through it rather than as a flat printed pattern. The melange here is black and brown, so the herringbone resolves at a distance into a warm dark neutral and separates into its two colours up close. What Lemaire has done with it is the interesting part. Tweed carries a great deal of inherited baggage, almost all of it about the countryside and about tailoring shaped to the body. This jacket refuses both: the cut is boxy, square through the body, with the shoulder and the hem doing the work instead of the waist. It is fully lined, which keeps a cloth this substantial moving cleanly over what is underneath rather than catching on it.

Why we selected it

Tweed is easy to buy badly, because most of what is made in it is a costume. A boxy, unfitted, fully lined jacket in a genuine Harris Tweed is the version that gets worn, and there are very few of them.

Taking a cloth with heavy inherited associations and cutting it as though those associations did not exist is one of the most consistent things Lemaire does.

Materials and construction

100% wool in a Harris Tweed herringbone, black and brown melange, fully lined in a technical fabric. Made in Slovakia. Two notes on that. The cloth and the garment come from different places by definition: Harris Tweed is woven in the Outer Hebrides and the jacket is made up in Slovakia, which is the normal arrangement and is not a contradiction. And we do not hold a fibre content for the lining, only that it is a technical fabric, so we describe what it does rather than what it is made of.

Fit notes

A boxy cut, so it is square through the body with no waist suppression and sits away from the torso rather than following it. That means it takes a knit underneath comfortably, and it means the fit is decided at the shoulder rather than at the chest. Harris Tweed is a substantial cloth with body to it, so this jacket holds its shape rather than draping. We do not hold measurements, and there is no Lemaire size chart on this site.

Styling

A square jacket over something straight and narrow is the proportion this is drawn for, so a slim or straight trouser rather than a full one. The black and brown melange is a genuine neutral and will sit with denim, grey flannel, cream, and olive; it is one of the few tweeds that does not insist on being worn with other country cloth.

Care

Tweed is cleaned far less often than people expect. Brushing after wear does most of the work, airing does the rest, and a heavy wool jacket that is dry cleaned frequently will lose its loft and its hand long before it wears out. Spot treat rather than cleaning the whole garment, and hang it on a broad hanger with room around it. Our fabric care guide covers wool, and the multi-material section applies because the lining and the shell are different fibres.

Related pieces

In wool, the Utility Jacket and the Dispatch Peacoat, which is cut as tailoring. The Soft SB Jacket is the soft-shouldered version. Everything we carry from Lemaire is listed together.