Massimo Alba Bali Jacket

Cashmere is normally knitted. Making a jacket from it, woven and cut and tailored, is an unusual decision and an expensive one, and it produces a garment that does not behave like either of the things it resembles. It has the weight and outline of outerwear and the hand of knitwear, and the first time you put it on, the sensation is of a coat that has forgotten to be stiff.

The stand-up collar is what completes the argument. A notched lapel is a piece of formal grammar; it tells everyone the garment descends from a suit, and it drags a certain amount of ceremony along with it. A stand collar cuts that line entirely. What is left is a plain, single-breasted, buttoned shape with nothing declarative about it, in a brown called Caffe, made from the softest cloth a jacket can reasonably be made from. It is a quiet garment, and deliberately so: nothing about it is spent on being seen.

Why we selected it

We bought it because we could not think of another jacket that does this. Cashmere outerwear usually announces itself, and this does the opposite, which is the only version of the idea we were ever interested in.

Massimo Alba came to his own label from cashmere houses, and the Bali is where that history is most literally on the hanger: the fibre he knows best, put to a use it is rarely put to.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent cashmere, made in Italy. Single-breasted with a button closure and a stand-up collar. Colour: Caffe.

Fit notes

A cashmere jacket drapes rather than holds, so it will read softer and slightly longer on the body than a wool jacket of the same pattern. The stand collar sits close to the neck, which means what you wear underneath is visible at the throat or not at all: a crewneck works, a spread-collar shirt fights it. Cashmere relaxes across a day of wear and recovers when it rests. Because this is a large piece in a delicate fibre, it wants a shaped hanger and space around it.

Styling

Over the Liam sweater in blue against the Caffe. Over a plain shirt with the Stan trouser. It is warm enough for a Santa Fe evening most of the year and light enough to carry over an arm during the day, which is most of what we ask of a jacket here.

Care

Air it, brush it gently with a soft brush, and clean it rarely and only with a cleaner who handles cashmere regularly. Never hang it on a wire hanger and never press it hard, because flattening the nap is what ages a cashmere cloth. Our general care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Bali Jacket in cotton is the summer cloth. The Baglietto Jacket is cut in virgin wool and the Florida Jacket in wool, silk, and cashmere. In knitwear, the Liam Sweater and the Sport Crew Neck Sweater. Everything we carry from Massimo Alba is listed together.