Savas Lowry Jacket

A jacket is cut to a hem. A shirt is cut to a tail, and the difference is not decorative. A curved shirttail runs longer at the back than at the sides, which is what lets a garment be worn out over a trouser without looking as though it has been left undone, and it sets the back length, the fall of the side seam, and the whole line from the waist down. Cloth forgives that decision, because a hem can be moved later. Lamb leather does not, so a curved tail in leather is a pattern cut once and cut for good. The western detailing sits on top of a shape that was already resolved, which is why it reads as detailing rather than as costume. Black, in a smooth full grain lamb, and made in Italy.

Most shirt jackets are jackets that have been shortened. This one was drawn as a shirt and then made in leather, which is the harder order to do it in and the only one that produces a tail like this.

Savas is a Nashville atelier whose founder trained in menswear tailoring before she ever cut a hide, and the Lowry is where that training shows as pattern rather than as finish.

One hundred percent lamb leather, full grain, in Black. A curved shirttail, and western detailing. Made in Italy.

Full grain is the outermost layer of the hide, left as it came off the animal rather than sanded back and given a printed surface. It is smooth and close, it keeps whatever markings the skin arrived with, and because the tightest fibers in a hide are the ones nearest the surface, leaving them intact is what lets a lamb this light take years of wear without thinning. It also means the jacket will darken and soften where it is handled, and only where it is handled.

We do not state a lining, a hardware finish, or a pocket arrangement for this piece.

Sized 42 and 44 on the house's numbered run. A shirt jacket is drawn to go over something, so the size that fits you bare is rarely the size you want, but leather does not give the way a knit does and it does not recover either, so the layer you actually intend to wear under it is the one to size to. The curved tail means the back length is not the front length; if you have only ever worn straight-hemmed outerwear, this will sit lower behind than you expect, and that is the point of it.

Worn out, over a shirt, as the second layer rather than the outer one. Black lamb against indigo and against grey flannel, where the leather is the only thing with a sheen on it. Buttoned to the top it becomes a jacket; open, it stays a shirt, and it is better at the second job.

Savas's own instruction for its leather pieces is professional cleaning by a leather specialist rather than an ordinary dry cleaner, and that is the instruction to follow. Between times: keep it off standing water, hang it rather than folding it, and wipe it with a soft dry cloth rather than brushing it. There is no nap on a full grain surface to lift, so a brush does nothing but work a mark further in. A conditioner made for smooth leather, used sparingly and seldom, is the most this should ever want. Our care guidance covers the rest.

The Denham Jacket is the same lamb leather taken into a trucker and oiled, the Roving Jacket is the over-shirt idea in a calf suede specified to a tenth of a millimeter, and the Legend Jacket is the zip front in Hickory. Everything we carry from Savas is listed together.