Garment · Outerwear
The field jacket
A field jacket is a hip-length military-style jacket with four outside pockets, based on the American M-65, with the safari jacket as its civilian cousin.
A field jacket is a hip-length military-derived jacket with four patch pockets, a stand or convertible collar and often a drawstring waist. The American M-65 is the reference pattern. The safari jacket is its civilian relative, with a belt and a lighter cloth.
From uniform to wardrobe
Field jackets were designed to be worn over other layers and to carry equipment, which is why they are cut generously and covered in pockets. That generosity is also why they work over tailoring, and why a slim-cut field jacket makes no sense.
The safari jacket, bush jacket, is the tropical version, in lighter cotton or linen with a belt, and it has an intermittent life in menswear whenever the fashion cycle rediscovers it.
The safari jacket
The tropical relative: lighter cotton or linen, a belt, four patch pockets, often a half belt at the back. It recurs in menswear every decade or so and then recedes.
It works best treated as a jacket rather than as outerwear: worn over a shirt, in place of a sport coat, in hot weather, which is what it was for.
Wearing it over tailoring
Field jackets were cut over uniforms and have the room to go over a jacket, which makes them one of the more useful pieces of casual outerwear for someone who wears tailoring. The armhole is generous, the body is straight, and the length stops just below the jacket's skirt.
In cotton it is a spring and autumn garment; the original patterns were designed to be layered with a liner for cold weather rather than to be warm themselves.
Images
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At a glance
Picture credits 2
- An olive field jacket on a hook: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
- Progress M-65: Photograph · NASA · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain