I linked to the Drake’s tussah silk jackets earlier in the season because they remind me of the twin pillars of my summer sport coat wardrobe: chocolate raw silk and navy raw silk. Both were from Eidos’ spring/summer 2015 collection (my favorite), and while silk isn’t what I’d recommend as a staple choice for sport coats, they’ve both served me super well for the past 5 years.
Sometimes Drake’s does their product no favors by having somewhat small, lame studio product shots, with look book photos that show virtually nothing of the cloth or even how the clothes fit (everybody needs to do what No Man Walks Alone does in product photography). Thankfully, they’ve produced an editorial, with words by G. Bruce Boyer, which gives some real-life images to gauge the jacket on, with beautiful up-close photos to show the cloth up close (on a Mac, control-click and open the images in a new tab or window to show them in glorious high resolution; on iPad, tap and hold until the context menu shows, then tap the image again to open it in a new tab).
Drake’s brown isn’t as dark as my chocolate brown, but it’s nonetheless a beautiful shade that would work with many outfits, and the navy is likewise a dark-enough but not super dark midnight navy that will work really well in the summer months. A buddy of my said he had an old silk jacket passed down from his dad that wore hot as a plastic bag. Thankfully, modern jackets seem to take that into consideration and are woven more loosely in lighter weight yarn—such is the case with mine, and they wear comfortably in all but the most miserable, humid days.
Read the editorial here, and find the jackets here in brown and here in navy.
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I was interested in Drakes tailoring but on closer inspection of their jackets realised they were half canvassed garments. I think they changed factories a couple of years back and dropped the quality moving from a canvassed to a half canvassed jacket which you find at their stores today. Seems cheap move by them and at their prices would pass. Far better options in the market. Why Bruce Boyer is recommending them I dont know but I guess Benjamin Franklin must have convinced him. A bit sad if you ask me.
I agree for the price that’s a tough ask. I actually don’t mind half canvas in principle as really what it means is that it’s just got no canvas below the waist (not fused like half canvas maybe used to be). But definitely the price is high. At 30% off it’s within the realm of reasonable I’d say though, if the fabric is nice. Anyway, thanks for the comment. Cheers.