Tibi Cavalier Twill Shrunken Blazer

Lyocell is worth understanding before you wear it, because most people meet it without being told what it is. It is cellulose, made from wood pulp, spun through a solvent process that produces a fibre with a smooth surface and a heavy, liquid fall. On its own it drapes beautifully and holds no shape whatever. Wool is the opposite: springy, resilient, and inclined to return to where it was pressed. Put seventy-seven parts of the first against twenty-three of the second and you get a twill that falls like something fluid while still recovering like something tailored, which is precisely the combination a shrunken jacket needs. A cropped blazer has less cloth to work with than a full-length one and therefore less margin for error: it either sits or it does not, and there is no length below the waist to disguise the answer. This one is cut close and short, and the twill is woven open enough that it moves at the shoulder rather than fighting there. The collar is drafted to work up or down, which is a genuine choice and not a marketing one, and the front closure is concealed, so the line down the front of the jacket is unbroken. The house even sews the third button shut deliberately, which tells you the shape was decided before the fastening was.

Why we selected it

Warm-weather tailoring usually means a jacket in a lighter version of a winter cloth, which is why so much of it feels like a compromise. This is not that. It is a blazer conceived in a warm-weather cloth from the start, and it is the piece we point at when someone wants tailoring in April and does not want wool.

Tibi has been designed by its founder Amy Smilovic since 1997, and the Cavalier Twill is one of the house’s own developed cloths rather than a stock suiting.

Materials and construction

Seventy-seven percent lyocell and twenty-three percent virgin wool, in an open twill. Made in Poland. Black. Shrunken silhouette, a collar that can be worn up or turned down, and a concealed front button.

Fit notes

Shrunken means short in the body and close through the shoulder and sleeve, so it wears nearer the frame than a standard blazer and sits above the hip rather than over it. The twill has a natural give from the weave and the lyocell rather than from any elastane, which means it moves but does not stretch to fit, and the size that is right on the shoulder is the size. It layers over a tank or a fine knit and will feel crowded over anything heavier.

Styling

Over the Pebble Sable Square Neck Cross Back Tank, which is the pairing the cropped length was drawn for. With the Tropical Wool Maxi Skirt for a full look in two different blacks, which is more interesting than a matched suit. Over the Alec Jean with the collar up.

Care

Lyocell is at its weakest when wet, and a cropped jacket has short seams that show any distortion immediately, so this is a dry clean garment rather than a hand wash one. Press it cool if at all, since the wool will take a crease the lyocell then cannot lose. Our care guidance covers regenerated cellulosics like lyocell, and what to do when a garment is more than one material.

Related pieces

For the same model in cashmere, the Cashmere Suiting Liam Blazer, and for the house blazer in a year-round cloth, the Tropical Wool Liam Blazer. It is worn over the Tropical Wool Maxi Skirt and the Pebble Sable Square Neck Cross Back Tank. Everything we currently hold from Tibi is listed together.