A waxed flat cap is what finishes a wax jacket, and this is the one we reach for first. It is cut from the same waxed cotton as the jackets, low and flat in the crown with a stiff corduroy peak, so it sits close to the head instead of ballooning the way a cheap cap does. Olive is the colour the whole wax story was built on, and it goes with nearly everything in a fall closet, from a Bedale to a navy overcoat.
The name comes from the Ashby jacket, the longer, leaner take on the Bedale that the South Shields house introduced in 2011 and that became a best seller almost overnight. The cap borrows the same idea: the classic cloth, trimmed down. Waxed cotton outer, cotton lining, a small tonal embroidery on the wearer's left and two branded studs on the backstrap. The wax darkens at the folds and takes on character as it wears, which is the point, and when the cloth starts to dry out it can be re-proofed at home the same way the jackets are.
These caps are sized by head measurement, not by jacket size. Run a tape around your head just above the ears and eyebrows and pick the band in the chart below. If you land between two bands, take the larger one. Waxed cotton has none of the give that tweed does, and a cap that is snug on day one stays snug.
Wear it with the wax jacket it was named for, or over a tweed sport coat and a pair of brogues on a Saturday. It is the piece that makes the rest of the outfit look intentional.