Margaret Howell Relaxed Blazer

Linen and tailoring want opposite things. Tailoring wants a cloth that holds a shape it is given; linen holds nothing and creases where it bends, which is why a sharply cut linen jacket looks wrong within an hour of being worn. The answer is to stop asking. Cut relaxed, with the structure taken out of the body, a linen blazer stops fighting the cloth and starts using it, and the creasing becomes the surface rather than the failure. The linen is worn rather than crisp, which means it has been softened before it was made up, so it arrives already past the stiff stage and drapes from the first wearing. Elephant is a grey that goes slightly warm in daylight and slightly green against black.

Why we selected it

A summer jacket has to be a jacket you will actually keep on. The relaxed cut is why this one gets worn in July rather than carried.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent worn linen, made in Italy. Relaxed fit. Color: Elephant.

Fit notes

Relaxed through the body and the shoulder, so it goes over a shirt and sits away from the waist. Numeric sizing. It will crease at the elbow and across the back of the seat within a wearing. Hung overnight, most of that falls out.

Styling

With the pleated crop trouser or the relaxed crop pant for the plain version, or over the Oversized Shirt Dress for the version that uses two linens against each other. With the Three Button Shirt underneath and both sleeves left alone.

Care

Hang it and let creases fall rather than pressing them out, because a pressed linen crease is sharper than an unpressed one and shows more. Keep it out of a hot dryer. Our general care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Boxy Blazer is linen cut square through the body with no waist shaping. The Relaxed Pleated Trouser is a linen twill, pleated and cut to a relaxed leg, and the Flap Pocket Blazer is wool woven as a Glencheck. There is more on the house on the Margaret Howell designer page. Everything we carry from Margaret Howell is listed together.