Lemaire Utility Jacket

Melton is the reason this jacket works. It is a wool that has been heavily fulled after weaving, which is to say deliberately shrunk and matted under heat and agitation until the individual threads are no longer distinguishable and the surface is dense, smooth, and slightly napped. The result is a cloth so tightly compacted that a cut edge does not fray, which is why melton has been the standard for military and naval outerwear for two centuries and why it can be worked without the finishing a normal wool needs. It is also windproof in a way a loosely woven wool never is, because there is essentially no air path through it. Putting a five-pocket utility layout on melton is the joke and the point at once. Five external patch pockets is a workwear vocabulary, borrowed from garments made in canvas and duck cloth for people who needed to carry things, and here it is executed in a dense tailoring wool and cut oversized. The pockets are still functional, the cloth is better than the reference deserves, and neither half apologises for the other.

Why we selected it

A wool jacket with genuinely usable pockets is rarer than it should be, because most wool outerwear puts its pockets where they look right rather than where a hand goes. Melton also makes this warmer than it looks.

Borrowing a utilitarian layout and building it in a better cloth than the original ever used is a recurring Lemaire move.

Materials and construction

100% wool in a melton, lined in 100% cotton. Five front patch pockets, oversized cut. Made in Lithuania, in black.

Fit notes

Cut oversized, so it takes a knit or a shirt underneath without strain and sits away from the body. Melton is a dense cloth with real weight, so this holds its shape and does not drape, and the oversized cut reads as volume rather than as slouch. We do not hold measurements, and there is no Lemaire size chart on this site.

Styling

Black melton is about as plain as outerwear gets, so the five pockets are the only detail and they should be allowed to be seen. Over a straight trouser it reads as a coat; over denim it reads as the workwear it is quoting. It is a good outer layer for the Raglan Jacket Liner.

Care

Melton needs less cleaning than almost any wool, because the dense napped surface sheds dirt and can be brushed rather than washed. Brush after wear, air it, and spot treat marks. Frequent dry cleaning flattens the nap, which is the one thing on this cloth that does not recover. Our fabric care guide covers wool, and the multi-material section applies to a wool shell with a cotton lining.

Related pieces

The Dispatch Peacoat is the tailored wool outer made in the same country, the Raglan Jacket Liner goes underneath it, and the Boxy Tailored Jacket is the tweed. Everything we carry from Lemaire is listed together.