Nicholas Daley Lavenham Sashiko Jacket

Sashiko is a Japanese running stitch, worked in white thread on indigo cloth, developed among working people in the north of Japan for the least glamorous reason imaginable: to reinforce and repair garments that had to last. Layers of worn cotton were stitched together in geometric grids that strengthened the fabric while using every scrap of it. That it is beautiful was a consequence rather than an aim, and it is one of the clearest examples anywhere of a decorative tradition that began as thrift.

Lavenham has been quilting in Suffolk since the 1970s, originally for horses and then for the people riding them, and its diamond-quilted jackets are a fixed point in English country dress. Putting sashiko into a Lavenham quilt is therefore not a surface gesture. It replaces one quilting grammar with another, and both of them started as a way of holding layers of cloth together for practical reasons.

The collaboration came out of Daley’s spring 2021 collection, which was built around Peter Tosh and around the meeting of reggae and martial arts in the 1970s. That is why a Japanese stitch is on an English quilted bomber in the middle of a Jamaican collection, and once you know it the garment stops being eclectic and starts being argued.

Why we selected it

We took this because it is the piece that makes Daley’s method legible in a single object. Two national craft traditions, both of them originally about repair and endurance, on a jacket you can wear in the rain. We also do not expect to see a Lavenham with this stitching on it again.

Nicholas Daley’s collaborations are chosen for what the other house already knows how to do, and Lavenham had been quilting in Suffolk for decades before this jacket existed.

Materials and construction

Cotton, nylon, and polyester. We do not hold the proportions. Made in England in waxed cotton and nylon, with sashiko-stitched quilting and light padding. Bomber cut. Colour: Concrete.

Fit notes

A bomber, so it is cut short in the body with a gathered hem and sits above the hip. The light padding adds warmth without much bulk, which means it layers over a shirt or a waffle crew but will feel crowded over a heavy knit. Quilted jackets do not relax with wear; what it is on the first day is what it will be. Take your usual size, or size up only if you intend to wear substantial knitwear beneath.

Styling

Over the Hooded Pullover, which is the same register of garment. With the Pleated Trouser in black and a boot. Concrete is a neutral that will take anything, including the tartans, which is not true of most of his outerwear.

Care

The waxed cotton rules the whole garment. Do not machine wash, tumble dry, or dry clean it, because all three strip the wax. Brush off dry dirt, sponge marks with cold water and no detergent, hang it to dry away from heat, and re-wax when the cloth stops beading water. Our fabric care guidance covers the rest, and this is one of the pieces where the exception matters more than the general rule.

Related pieces

The Stepping Razor T-Shirt and the DO-GI Pant in beige come from the same collection project. The Hooded Pullover is the soft layer under it, and the Oversized Rain Coat the waxed cotton outerwear. Everything we carry from Nicholas Daley is listed together.