Nicholas Daley Oversized Rain Coat

Waxed cotton was developed in Scotland for sail and then for the people who wore sail, and it is one of very few textiles that is improved by hard use. Cotton is woven and then impregnated with a paraffin or blended wax that fills the interstices of the weave, so water runs off while air still moves through. What it does not do is stay uniform. The wax migrates away from every point of friction and gathers in every fold, so the cloth lightens at the elbow, the shoulder, and the pocket edges and darkens along each crease. Within a year a waxed coat carries a legible record of the person who has been wearing it, and within five it is unmistakably theirs and nobody else’s.

Daley cuts this one oversized, which is the correct decision and not a stylistic one. A waxed cloth has almost no drape and considerable stiffness, so a close-fitting waxed coat fights the wearer at every movement while a generous one hangs off the shoulders and lets the cloth do what it wants. The details are hard: welted pockets, zipped pockets, a zip closure, no softening anywhere. Navy against light blue gives it the only warmth it has.

Why we selected it

This is a coat that will still be worth owning in twenty years, and we would put it against anything else of its kind. It also belongs to the same argument as raw denim, which is that a garment can be better in year five than in week one. Very little outerwear can honestly make that claim.

Waxed cotton is the material Nicholas Daley returns to more than any other, and this coat is one of the few pieces where it is the entire garment rather than the punctuation.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent cotton, waxed. Made in England. Oversized cut, zip closure, welted and zipped pocket details. Colours: navy and light blue.

Fit notes

Deliberately oversized, so it is drafted to sit well away from the body and to go over a jacket rather than over a shirt. Waxed cotton is stiff when new and softens across months rather than days, moulding at the elbow and shoulder as it goes. It does not relax across a day. Take your usual size and it will still read large, which is the intention. If you want it over tailoring, that is what it was cut for.

Styling

Over the Fonte Jacket, which is what an oversized coat is for. Over the Waffle Rollneck in chocolate with the Cargo Pants in the same waxed cotton for the full version of the idea. It will take a tartan underneath without complaint, which most outerwear will not.

Care

This is the exception to nearly everything else we would tell you. Never machine wash, tumble dry, or dry clean waxed cotton, because all three strip the wax out of the weave and the coat stops being what you bought. Brush off dry dirt, sponge marks with cold water and no detergent, and hang it to dry away from any heat source. Re-wax when the cloth looks dry and stops beading water, which is generally every year or two depending on how hard it is worn. Our fabric care guidance covers everything else.

Related pieces

The Cargo Pants are cut from the same waxed cotton and the Utility Waistcoat in khaki is the waxed layer. The Lavenham Sashiko Jacket is the quilted jacket, and the Railroad Parka the mohair one. Everything we carry from Nicholas Daley is listed together.