Massimo Alba Stromboli Jacket

Count the buttons on a jacket and you know most of what it will do. Three close the chest and hold it closed, which is why a three-button jacket reads as tailoring and behaves like it. Two buttons, set lower, leave a long open V from the shoulder to the waist, and everything inside that V becomes part of the outfit: the shirt, the neckline, whatever is at the throat. It is a more generous decision and a riskier one, because it puts the wearer rather than the jacket at the centre of the garment.

In linen it is riskier still. Linen has no memory. It cannot be persuaded to hold an edge, so a long open front in linen has to be drafted precisely enough to fall correctly without help, and there is nothing to hide behind when it does not. The horn buttons are cut from a natural material, so no two match exactly and all of them darken slightly with handling, which counts for more on a two-button jacket than it would on a six, because there are only two of them to look at.

Grape is not a colour most houses would put on a linen jacket. It is a deep, slightly dusty purple that goes brown before it goes bright, and that is why it works at all: at full saturation it would be a costume, and at this depth it behaves like a neutral that happens to be purple.

Why we selected it

Women’s summer tailoring is nearly all beige, white, and navy, and the reason is that linen in a strong colour is difficult to get right and easy to get badly wrong. We wanted one jacket that took the risk. The two-button front is what convinced us it had been drafted by somebody who meant it rather than somebody who had run out of buttons.

Massimo Alba builds jackets out of cloth and seams rather than canvas and padding, and the Stromboli is that method applied to the least forgiving fibre he works in.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent linen. Single-breasted with a two-button closure and horn buttons. Colour: Grape.

Fit notes

A softly built linen jacket reads closer to the body than a structured one, because there is less between the cloth and whatever is underneath it. With only two buttons, the shoulder and the upper chest are doing the work, and that is the part to judge in person. Linen will crease at the elbow and across the back from the first wearing, which is the fibre and not the make. It relaxes across a day and softens substantially across a season.

Styling

Over the Pamela shirt with the Karly trousers in beige, which lets the Grape be the only colour in play. Over the Lois in Wood. Open, in general; the two buttons are there as an option rather than an instruction.

Care

Air it and hang it on a shaped hanger, and use a cleaner rather than a machine, because this is tailoring even though it is linen. Keep the iron off the horn buttons. Our linen care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Karly Trousers are the wide-leg linen, the Pamela Shirt is the cotton shirt, the Lois Trouser in Wood is the high-waisted linen, and the Bali Jacket in hemp is the same idea in a fibre with more spine. Everything we carry from Massimo Alba is listed together.