Suede Is This Autumn’s Most Grown-Up Jacket
From Milan to heritage workwear, the suede jacket is the season’s sensible indulgence. Here is how to wear one.
Suede has been creeping back into menswear for several seasons; this autumn it is everywhere a sensible man might look. Brunello Cucinelli ran shearling and suede across the categories of his autumn/winter collection. Zegna showed suede jackets with high collars. Tod’s built outerwear around Pashmy, a leather named for its pashmina-like softness, including a coach jacket and a patch-pocketed leather blazer.
The more useful shift is happening below the runway. Gear Patrol’s round-up of the season’s jackets, updated on October 2, lists suede chore coats and truckers from Filson, Todd Snyder and Buck Mason, whose Sportsman jacket is cut in steerhide suede after a 1941 US Marine Corps utility jacket. Valet, writing this week, singles out the lighter suede shirt jacket as the most versatile version: less of a commitment than a blouson, and easier to layer.
## Getting it right
Color does most of the work. Tobacco, chocolate and snuff look richer with age and sit naturally with grey flannel, navy knitwear and denim. Opumo’s autumn report argues that chocolate now functions as a neutral, and a dark brown suede jacket is the clearest proof.
Wear it open over a heavy T-shirt or a fine-gauge knit, with relaxed denim or pleated wool trousers, as Valet suggests. A plain chore or shirt-jacket shape, with patch pockets and simple buttons, is easier to live with than anything with zips, belts and buckles.
On care, suede is more forgiving than its reputation. A protective spray before first wear, a soft brush afterward and a hanger with a broad shoulder cover most of it. Light rain is no disaster: let the jacket dry naturally, away from heat, then brush the nap back up.
