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Product of the week: Love Brand’s new Painter’s Jacket
Meet the ‘Weatherford’, a cotton workwear jacket made for both the walk along the sand and the walk into the city.
- Words by: Gentlemans Journal
There are plenty of jackets that are skilfully crafted to be incredibly functional and serve a specific purpose – jackets that get the job done. These are great, and we’d always encourage you to have the proper kit when it comes to dressing just right for an alpine adventure, or perhaps a day of shooting. But what about a jacket that can do more than serve a function? A good one that does the whole year’s worth of odd jobs: the breezy walk, the dinner you didn’t plan, the early flight, the pub that turned into a longer afternoon.
That’s the thinking behind the Weatherford, the new Painter’s Jacket from Love Brand & Co, designed in collaboration with British actor Ed Speleers. It marries the heritage of traditional British workwear with Love Brand’s beachy spirit, and the result is a jacket that’s built to last but with a softer handle than you’d expect from the genre. Made in small batches in Portugal from 100% cotton, it has multiple patch pockets and a modern cut that never loses its sharpness.
Speleers designed the Weatherford to work as well by the sea as it does in town.
Why the “Painter’s” Jacket?
For Speleers, the appeal of a workwear jacket lies in how little it cares who’s wearing it. “There is something about this style of jacket that breaks stereotypes,” he says. “I think you can be anyone from anywhere wearing a jacket like this.” Britain, he argues, has always been good at making things, whether that’s clothes, art or engineering, and the best of it gets adopted across the nation regardless of background.
The idea had been on his mind for years: something very British that could also work anywhere in the world. A fledgling relationship with Oliver at Love Brand, built over a year of creative conversations, provided the opening. Love Brand wanted to push beyond the collections it’s best known for, and Speleers, who grew up around the family textiles business, wanted to explore menswear more seriously. “To already have such an established brand, yet to allow me into their playground,” he says, “has been quite humbling.”
“There is something about this style of jacket that breaks stereotypes”
The non-negotiable was the fit. Speleers wanted something fairly tailored, which meant obsessing over the small things: where the buttons sit, the extra stitching, the placement of the collar, the length of the slit in the sleeve, the strip around the back. The aim was a jacket that’s smart, simple, and understated, but that you notice has something interesting about it.
The Terra colourway brings out the jacket’s workwear roots.
It also had to work for most of the year. Speleers is realistic that you won’t get away with wearing it in a British December, but a slightly heavier cotton means it should carry you from early spring through to late autumn. He wears his own with shorts and trainers as readily as with trousers, which he says is a completely different vibe – which, to us, sounds like he met his own goal of creating a truly versatile piece.
Milk is the lightest of the Weatherford’s three colourways.
There’s also the longer game. “I look to my son and think one day he’ll have them,” he says. “I feel like it should be a generational jacket.”
Love Brand & Co
Weatherford Cotton Jacket in Milk
The lightest colourway pairs easily with summer denim and white tees.
Love Brand & Co
Weatherford Cotton Jacket in Terra
An earthy green for the weeks either side of winter.
Love Brand & Co
Weatherford Cotton Jacket in Navy
A versatile navy that works with jeans or tailoring.
