Jacket Required

Inglis Hall is most definitely a collective effort. Every team needs a piece of kit.

An item of clothing that demonstrates a unity.

Making, and installing, a beautiful kitchen requires a lot of tools and instruments. Pencils, tape measures, screws. You know the kind of thing which adds weight and bulk to pockets.

Ah, yes! Pockets.

A jacket. Our own take on the classic chore coat. Similar to the timeless French painters jacket.

A strong practical jacket that will become more covetable as it ages. Simple to wear while working.

An easy thing to buy in bulk off the internet.

Well, yes and no. Not really.

Some things are critical to us. Local craft and beautiful quality.

Authenticity, provenance and material.

We approach a work jacket in the same way as we pursue the notion of a very good kitchen.

We start from scratch. An idea. Some references. Some research.

It all becomes tangible with a meeting with Katie Fitzsimons.

A friend of a friend who runs Beak Brewery. (Another thing we take seriously)

What she doesn’t know about crafting fantastic utility clothing that also happens to look good enough to keep on beyond work is probably not terribly important.

We pass around swatches. We sketch. We look at our favourite jackets.

A prototype. A fantastic, almost perfect, manifestation of our thoughts, requirements and objectives.

Only almost perfect? Well, that’s the point of a prototype.

A bit of pinning. Some marking. Over a thick jumper for cold mornings.

And then.

Delivered by hand from her workshop in Ditchling. A bundle of beautiful, perfect and just so work jackets ready for use. And occasional misuse. And spills. And the odd repair. And hot washing. Empty the pockets.

Ah. The pockets. Sufficient and roomy but close cut enough to prevent even the tiniest thing falling out.

Each jacket beautifully, and proudly, embroidered with Inglis Hall on the back.

You don’t work for us, you don’t wear the jacket. (By all means challenge this one. Give us a reason why you should wear one of the jackets and we will think about it)

So. There you have it. A simple thing that cannot be obtained immediately. A simple thing that will justify the investment of time and resources. A thing that works perfectly and becomes more beautiful with time and use.

A thing that defines our belief that crafted items which respond precisely to our own, unique way of living satisfy and please in a way that the mass produced, easily acquired, easily replaced alternative can never do.

I’ll get my coat.