What is Wednesday.

This weekly What is Wednesday post is aimed at answering some of the more basic and critical aspects of tailoring and the terminology we use to describe them. It stems from realizing that I’m constantly throwing out different terms with my clients and quite often they’re unsure as to what I exactly mean.  The goal of this section then is to alleviate this terminology gap and provide you with some know-how to talk tailoring with a little more ease.

What is…meant by a half-lined and unlined jacket?

I’m going to assume that everyone is comfortable with the idea of a full lining; they make up the bulk of jackets and as the name implies they cover the entire inside of the garment. Considerably less common in our climate is the half-lined and unlined varieties.  I’ll start with their similarities; firstly both will always have lining in the sleeves as this enables the jacket to easily pass over the arms.  Secondly both will have the inside of the front “lined” with the same cloth as the jacket itself; this is necessary to cover the canvas that runs along the front of the jacket and provides it with its shape.

As for the differences; it simply comes down to whether or not there is lining covering the upper back area.  As you can see in the image above there is such coverage – the result is this is a half-lined jacket.  No upper coverage and it becomes unlined – pretty simple really.

The idea behind having the lining is that it allows for the jacket to move smoothly over the shoulders; something which comes into play when the cloth is a touch rougher resulting in friction between the shirt and the jacket.  This effect is both uncomfortable for the wearer and leads to unnecessary wear and tear on both pieces hence the half-lining option.  Smoother cloths simply don’t need the layer.

As always I’d love to hear your opinions on this or any sartorial subject for that matter.  Better yet book a free appointment and we can banter in person and see if we might be a good fit to work together.

Take care – Michael

info@martinfishertailors.com