Margaret Howell Overcoat

Houndstooth is one of the oldest woven patterns still in use and one of the few that changes at distance. Up close it is a clear repeating shape with points on it, produced by a simple twill and a four-and-four alternation of two colors in warp and weft. Step back and the points blur into their neighbors and the whole cloth resolves into a single mottled tone. Woven in three colors rather than two, black against tan against rust, that resolution gets more interesting: the eye reads a warm grey-brown that has no name and that shifts with the light, and no photograph of it is quite right. Tweed is the correct ground for it, because a woolen yarn with some hairiness lets the colors bleed into each other at the boundary instead of holding a hard edge. The coat around it is cut relaxed with a plain button front, which is the only sensible thing to do with a cloth this active. A structured coat in a three-color houndstooth would be a great deal of coat. This one lets the cloth be the event and keeps everything else quiet, which is the whole method of the house in a single garment.

Why we selected it

A coat is the thing that gets seen most and replaced least, so it is the one place where a cloth with this much going on is a good idea rather than a risk. We wanted one coat that could be the only thing a person wore over everything.

British woolens cut without ceremony is where Margaret Howell started and this coat is a direct statement of it.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent wool in a houndstooth tweed, made in Italy. Relaxed fit, button closure. Colors: Black, Tan, and Rust.

Fit notes

Relaxed and cut to go over things, so size it on what you intend to wear underneath rather than on the shoulder. Numeric sizing. A woolen tweed is heavier than a worsted of the same thickness and hangs from the shoulder accordingly, which is what keeps a relaxed coat from looking shapeless.

Styling

Over almost anything, which is the point of it, but it is at its best over a plain: the Seamless Crew, the Bib Front Shirt, the flannel trousers. Against black it reads warm. Against brown it reads as one family and needs the shoe to be dark to hold the bottom of the outfit.

Care

Brush it, hang it on a broad hanger with room on both sides, and clean it rarely. Tweed is a cloth that improves with air and suffers with solvent, and moths want it more than they want a worsted, so store it clean and with something in the closet they dislike. Our general care guidance covers the rest, including the storage question.

Related pieces

The Stand Collar Jacket is Ventile cotton, woven dense enough to turn rain with no coating on it, and the Raglan Blazer is wool with the shoulder seam left out. Everything we carry from Margaret Howell is listed together.