Full canvas vs half canvas

Where they diverge

Both have a floating canvas through the chest and lapel, hand- or machine-padded into shape. In a fully canvassed jacket that canvas continues to the hem; in a half-canvassed one it stops around the second button and the front below is fused.

Since the chest and lapel do almost all the visible shaping, half canvas keeps most of what a customer can see: the lapel rolls, the chest holds a shape, the jacket does not feel like a board.

What full canvas adds

Drape in the lower front, because the cloth and the canvas remain two independent layers all the way down. Moulding, because the whole front takes the wearer's shape over time. And alterability, because the structure is sewn rather than bonded and can be unsewn.

It also removes the one failure mode half canvas retains: a fused lower front can eventually delaminate, though modern fusibles are considerably better than their reputation.

What it costs

Full canvas is roughly three times the labour of half canvas in the canvassing operation alone. That is why the construction tracks price so closely and why it is advertised so prominently by makers who use it.

For a jacket worn weekly and kept a decade, the extra is worth it. For a jacket worn occasionally, it genuinely is not, and a maker who says so is being straight with you.