Margaret Howell MHL Flap Pocket Blazer

There is a main-line Margaret Howell blazer with this same name, and it is worth saying plainly what is different about this one, because a shared name is the least informative thing two garments can have. The main-line jacket is a worsted Glencheck, made in Italy, sized numerically. This is a wool cloth with cotton spun into it, made in Portugal, sized by letter. That composition is the whole difference. Cotton in a wool cloth takes the luster and some of the softness out of it and puts in a dry hand and more resistance to abrasion, which is exactly the trade a work cloth makes and exactly the trade a suiting refuses. So this is not a lesser version of a tailored blazer. It is a different proposition: a jacket built to the standard of work clothing that happens to have lapels and flap pockets, made to be worn hard and left unpressed. Moss is a green that has grey in it, which is why it behaves as a neutral rather than as a color.

Why we selected it

We wanted a jacket a person could wear on a Tuesday without thinking about it. A relaxed wool-cotton blazer is the shortest route to that, and this one does not look like it is trying to be tailoring.

MHL by Margaret Howell is the utilitarian half of the house, built with coarser thread, bar-tacking, twin-needle seams, and corozo buttons on durable cloth, and this is the piece where that method meets a tailored shape.

Materials and construction

Eighty percent wool and twenty percent cotton, made in Portugal. Relaxed fit, flap pockets, button closure. Color: Moss.

Fit notes

Relaxed through the body and the shoulder, so it goes over a knit without pulling. Lettered sizing. A wool-cotton cloth holds less shape than a worsted and creases more readily, and it also does not show a shine the way a worsted does. It is meant to be worn rather than hung.

Styling

Over the MHL S/S Flat Pocket Shirt or the MHL Simple T-Shirt, which is the version we would wear. With the MHL Painters Trouser in charcoal. Moss against charcoal, black, or indigo all work, because the grey in the green is doing the reconciling.

Care

Treat it as wool rather than as cotton, because wool is the majority and the half that felts. Brush and hang rather than washing, and let creases fall out between wearings. Our general care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Margaret Howell Flap Pocket Blazer carries the same name on the main line and a different cloth under it, a Glencheck woven in wool alone and made in Italy. The MHL Worker Jacket is the same work-cloth thinking in cotton drill. Everything we carry from Margaret Howell, main line and MHL alike, is listed together.