Ash Brown Bookstore Jacket Boiled Wool

Every French house makes a work jacket. Almost nobody makes one like this. Instead of the usual cotton drill, this one is cut from boiled wool, so it does the job of a light coat while still throwing on like a chore jacket.

Boiling the wool tightens the weave into a dense, almost felted cloth that blocks wind, shrugs off a light drizzle, and holds its shape year after year. Ash brown is the working colour of the piece, a soft mushroom brown that sits comfortably with denim, greys, and every shade of tan you own.

The cut is boxy and slightly cropped, finishing at the hip with room for a heavy knit underneath. It is cut generously: take your usual size for the intended oversized look, or size down one for a closer fit.

Each piece carries a label naming the atelier that made it, in this case the Atelier of Mr Erbas in Pantin, on the northeast edge of Paris. It is the jacket you keep by the door from September through November, and again from March.

Read the full De Bonne Facture story: The Paris label that puts its makers on the label →

“Made in France”