Lemaire Soft SB Jacket

Soft tailoring is a construction method before it is a look. A conventional jacket gets its shape from what is inside it: canvas through the chest, padding at the shoulder, a built structure that the cloth is stretched over so the garment holds a line whether or not a body is in it. A soft jacket removes most of that and asks the cloth to do the work instead, which is why it can only be done with cloth good enough to carry it. Take the structure out of a mediocre fabric and you get a bag; take it out of a fine lightweight cashmere blend and you get a jacket that falls from the shoulder in one movement and moves with the person wearing it. That is what is happening here. The cut is oversized rather than fitted, so the drape has room to develop, and it is fully lined, which on a soft jacket is not about structure but about letting the garment slide over what is underneath instead of gripping it. Single-breasted, with the closure kept quiet. Anthracite grey is the colour that suits this construction best, because a mid-to-dark grey shows drape as shadow, and drape is the entire proposition.

Why we selected it

We wanted one jacket that could be worn over a shirt or over a heavy knit without changing the way it hangs, and a soft-shouldered oversized cut is the only construction that does that. Cashmere makes it light enough to wear indoors.

Unstructured tailoring in good cloth is close to the centre of what Lemaire makes, and this is the house’s most straightforward statement of it.

Materials and construction

A lightweight cashmere blend, fully lined, single-breasted, cut oversized. Made in Hungary, in anthracite and grey. We do not hold a composition for this jacket, only that the cloth is a cashmere blend, so we do not state a percentage or say what the cashmere is blended with. We hold no fibre content for the lining either. Cashmere blended with wool behaves differently from cashmere blended with silk, and the label is where that answer is.

Fit notes

Cut oversized and built without structure, so it sits away from the body and takes a substantial layer underneath without pulling. The shoulder is soft, which means it follows the wearer’s own shoulder line rather than imposing one, and it will look different on different people in a way a padded jacket does not. We do not hold measurements, and there is no Lemaire size chart on this site.

Styling

An oversized soft jacket wants a defined line somewhere else, so a straight trouser and flat shoes rather than volume on volume. Anthracite is the useful grey: dark enough to read as tailoring in the evening, light enough to show the drape in daylight, and it works with black without the two fighting.

Care

Cashmere and cashmere blends want brushing and airing rather than cleaning, and they should be rested between wears rather than worn on consecutive days. Because this is a blend we do not hold, treat the label as governing and take it to a cleaner who is told it contains cashmere. Store it on a broad hanger with space around it, and read the moth section, because cashmere is what moths come for. Our fabric care guide covers cashmere and has a section on garments that are more than one material.

Related pieces

The Boxy Tailored Jacket is the structured wool answer to the same question, the Raglan Jacket Liner is the alpaca layer that goes under outerwear, and the Utility Jacket is cut looser still. Everything we carry from Lemaire is listed together.