Savas Roving Jacket

Six tenths of a millimeter is the number worth holding on to. At that thickness a calf suede behaves like cloth rather than like outerwear: it folds at the elbow instead of creasing, it gathers at a cuff, and it hangs from a shoulder rather than standing away from it. That is the whole argument for taking a work shirt into leather at all, because a work shirt stiffened into a jacket has stopped being a work shirt. Savas names its leathers rather than leaving them to a word like premium, and this one is Wedgewood calf suede in Astor Blue. The body is unlined and the sleeves are lined in Bemberg, which is what lets a leather sleeve pass over a shirt sleeve rather than dragging on it. Two chest pockets. The buttons are buffalo horn, made in England and sewn on by hand inside a box of stitching the house describes as "designed to give every hand-sewn button its own signature square," at eleven stitches to the inch. It is hand-cut and sewn at a woman-owned factory in Tuscany.

A blue suede work shirt is the kind of garment that is usually costume, and this is the version that is specified instead: a named leather, a stated thickness, a stated stitch count, and a named workshop. The idea survives the making, which is rarer than it sounds.

Savas develops its own leathers with a third-generation Italian tannery rather than buying them finished, which is why a house this small can put a name and a thickness on a hide.

Wedgewood calf suede at .6mm, one hundred percent calf, in Astor Blue. Unlined through the body, with Bemberg-lined sleeves. Two chest pockets. Buffalo horn buttons made in England, hand-sewn, at eleven stitches to the inch. Hand-cut and sewn in Italy.

Sized 38 and 40 on the house's numbered run. This is cut as an over-shirt, which means it is drawn to go over a shirt and not over a sweater, and at six tenths of a millimeter it will not disguise a bulky layer underneath the way a heavier hide would. The Bemberg sleeve is doing the work of getting it on; the body is unlined, so it will read closer to the shirt beneath it than a lined jacket would.

As the middle layer. Astor Blue over white, over grey, or over more indigo, and under a coat when it gets cold, which the thickness makes genuinely possible. Buttoned, it is a shirt with the weight of a jacket. Open over a tee, it is the other way round.

Suede wants a brush and not a cream. The nap lifts with a suede brush and lies flat under anything applied wet, so keep this away from standing water and away from the products made for smooth leather. Savas's own instruction beyond that is professional cleaning by a leather and suede specialist rather than an ordinary dry cleaner. Our care guidance covers the rest.

The Lowry Jacket is the over-shirt idea in lamb leather, the Legend Jacket is the calf suede zip jacket in Hickory, and the Denham Jacket is the trucker in an oiled lamb. Everything we carry from Savas is listed together.