Nigel Cabourn Fireman Jacket

A jacket that is more than half hemp is an unusual object, because hemp is difficult to spin and difficult to weave, and most makers who want its dryness settle for a much smaller percentage of it. At fifty-three percent it is the majority in this cloth and it sets the character of the whole garment. Hemp is stronger than cotton, stiffer than cotton, and has almost no elasticity, so a hemp-led cloth stands away from the body rather than falling onto it, and it softens by being worn rather than by being finished at the mill. The forty-seven percent cotton does the other half of the work. It takes the abrasiveness out of the hand and gives the yarn enough give that the jacket is wearable from the first week rather than the fiftieth. What the blend produces is outerwear that behaves like canvas and feels like cloth, which is a genuinely difficult thing to arrive at and is the reason to own it rather than something lighter. The color is Indigo. It is made in Japan.

Why we selected it

We look for outerwear that improves rather than degrades, and a high-hemp cloth is the shortest route to it that we know. This is a jacket that will look more like itself in five years than it does today.

Nigel Cabourn’s clothes take their names from the people who wore the originals, and this is one of them. Where the jacket goes further than its name is in the cloth.

Materials and construction

Fifty-three percent hemp and forty-seven percent cotton. Made in Japan. Color: Indigo. We do not hold a description of the pockets, the closure, or the lining on this jacket, and we would rather leave those out than guess at them. Call the store and someone will take it off the rail and tell you.

Fit notes

Hemp has almost no recovery, which cuts both ways and is worth knowing before you choose a size. It will not stretch to accommodate you, so a jacket that is tight in the shoulder on day one stays tight. What it does instead is take a set: the elbows and the front break where you break them, and stay broken there. Sizing runs 50 and 52 in the house’s own numbering, which is a jacket scale rather than a chest measurement.

Styling

Over the French Pull-Over Shirt or the Open Collar Shirt, both of which are light enough not to fight it. With the Farmer Pant in charcoal, which puts two hemp cloths of different weights against each other. Indigo against charcoal is the version we would argue for over indigo against black.

Care

Treat this as a hemp garment rather than a cotton one, which means cool water, no tumble drying, and pressing while slightly damp if you press it at all. Hemp is strong when wet and tolerates washing better than most outerwear cloths, but it will shrink once and then stop. Our care guidance covers linen and hemp in more detail.

Related pieces

The French Work Jacket is hemp and cotton at ninety to ten, and the Cobbler Jacket carries hemp in a blend with wool and cotton. Everything we carry from Nigel Cabourn is listed together.