Nicholas Daley Fonte Jacket

Most tailored jackets are built to impose. Canvas through the chest, padding at the shoulder, and a lining that holds the whole assembly in a shape decided before anyone put it on. It is a remarkable piece of engineering and it is also the reason so many people own a jacket they wear four times a year and resent every time.

The soft jacket is the other tradition, and it has been quietly winning for thirty years. Take out the structure, let the cloth and the seams do the work, and what remains is a garment that follows the person wearing it. Daley’s version goes further by refusing to keep tailoring’s materials pure. Waxed cotton, which belongs to sailcloth and motorcycles and has no business anywhere near a wool jacket, turns up at the details. It is a small quantity of the wrong fabric in the right place, and it does two things at once: it stops the jacket from reading as formalwear, and it ties this piece back to the trousers, waistcoats, and coats in the rest of his line, all of which carry the same finish somewhere.

Black wool with a waxed black detail is the most restrained version of that idea Daley makes. You have to be near it to see what is happening, which is why it works.

Why we selected it

This is the jacket we would put on a customer who has stopped wearing tailoring and does not quite know how to start again. It goes over a tee, it goes under a coat, and nothing about it asks for an occasion. We also wanted one genuinely black, genuinely quiet piece from a house that is usually neither.

Nicholas Daley’s tailoring is where his workwear materials are pushed as far toward formality as the house takes them, and where the waxed cotton finally turns up somewhere it does not belong.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent wool with one hundred percent waxed cotton at the details. Made in England. Welt pockets at the chest, soft tailored construction. Colour: Black.

A welt pocket is cut into the cloth rather than applied on top of it, and finished with a narrow bound edge. It is the more formal of the two pocket treatments and the more difficult to execute.

Fit notes

A soft jacket sits closer to the body than a structured one, because there is nothing between the wool and your shirt to hold it away. Expect it to feel more like a shirt with authority than like a suit coat. The shoulder is what to judge, since with minimal structure the jacket will not disguise a shoulder that is wrong for you. It will take a tee, a shirt, or a waffle crew underneath. A heavy knit will crowd it.

We do not hold measurements for this piece and would rather you tried it on, or called us and let us measure the one in the store, than worked from a number.

Styling

Over the Classic Two Pocket Shirt in black with the 2-Pleat Trouser is the most direct case for it. Over a plain tee with the Pleated Trouser in khaki is the better-looking one. Under the Oversized Rain Coat in winter.

Care

Wool wants brushing far more than it wants cleaning: hang it on a shaped hanger, brush it down after wearing, and air it between outings. The waxed cotton details are the exception and must not be machine washed or dry cleaned, so tell the cleaner they are there before you leave the jacket, and find a cleaner who has dealt with waxed cotton before. Our fabric care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Fonte Tailored Jacket is the same tailoring in summer linen. The Stone Jacket is the work jacket in tartan, the Rebel Jacket is pieced from wool and cotton denim, and the 2-Pleat Trouser is the trouser to wear with it. Everything we carry from Nicholas Daley is listed together.