Nicholas Daley Big Mac Coat

The single-breasted town coat is one of the most fixed garments in British dress. It was standardised for weather and for city wear, cut long, buttoned to the throat, and made in gabardine or a plain worsted so that it disappeared into a street rather than announcing itself. Almost everything about it was settled before the Second World War and very little has moved since.

Daley moves two things. The cloth is Scottish mohair and wool rather than a flat worsted, which changes what the coat does with light. Mohair has lustre, so a check woven with it shifts as the wearer moves instead of sitting flat, and at coat scale a blue check becomes something read across a street rather than noticed at arm’s length. The cut is oversized rather than fitted through the chest, which takes the formality out of the shape and lets the cloth hang and swing.

What is left is the same garment doing a different job. It still buttons to the throat and it still covers a jacket. It has simply stopped pretending to be invisible.

Why we selected it

We bought this because the town coat is the hardest thing in outerwear to make interesting without wrecking it, and a mohair check at this scale is one of the few moves that does not. It is also the piece that shows most plainly what Daley’s relationship with the Scottish mills is for.

Nicholas Daley has his cloth woven to his own specification by Scottish mills, and his outerwear is where that arrangement is easiest to see.

Materials and construction

Scottish mohair and wool, made in England. Button closure, oversized cut. Colour: Blue Check. We do not hold the fibre proportions.

Fit notes

Cut deliberately large and drafted to go over a jacket rather than over a shirt. A mohair and wool cloth at coat weight has real body and will hold its own line rather than following yours. Take your usual size and expect it to read generous, which is the intention. The shoulder is the thing to judge, because an oversized coat that is wrong at the shoulder is wrong everywhere.

Styling

Over the Fonte Jacket, which is what an oversized coat is for. Over the Waffle Rollneck in chocolate with the Pleated Trouser in black. A blue check at this scale wants everything under it plain.

Care

Wool and mohair want brushing far more than they want cleaning. Hang it on a shaped hanger, brush it down after wearing, and air it between outings. Press on the reverse through a cloth if at all, because mohair takes a shine under a hot iron and does not lose it. Our fabric care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Railroad Parka is the Scottish mohair cut as a parka. The Oversized Rain Coat is the waxed cotton coat, the 70s Trouser in purple mohair the mohair trouser, and the Fonte Jacket the tailored jacket. Everything we carry from Nicholas Daley is listed together.