Casual jackets, and which size to take over a jumper

Chore jacket, overshirt, field jacket, blouson

These names get used interchangeably and they should not be. The most useful rule of thumb is pocket placement.

A chore jacket has hip pockets, and maybe something above. An overshirt has chest pockets and usually nothing on the hips. That sorts most of the rail, though it is a tendency rather than a law: the classic three-pocket bleu de travail has both, and there are more variations of the chore jacket than of any other category.

The chore jacket came out of 19th century France as the bleu de travail, the working blues worn by labourers, railway workers and farmers. Denim, heavy cotton drill or moleskin, roomy pockets sized for tools, button cuffs for rolling the sleeves, and a boxy cut with minimal shaping. Traditional makers include Vetra, Le Laboureur and Le Mont Saint Michel.

An overshirt derives from a work shirt rather than a jacket. Shirt cuffs, a front placket, a straight hem, and it is cut to layer over a tee.

A blouson gathers at the waist on a band, which is what gives it the bloused shape above the hem. Italian blousons, which is what RRD and Montecore are doing, run short and slim.

We have not published a definition of a field jacket, because we could not find an authoritative one worth citing. Judge those on the garment.

What size to take, which is the real question

This is the part nobody writes down, and it is why people return jackets.

A waxed Barbour is cut to go over a jumper. Taking your usual size gets you a jacket that works over a shirt and nothing else.

An overshirt is cut from a shirt pattern, so it is closer through the body than its name suggests. Your usual size, or up if you want it over a knit.

A chore jacket is boxy by design. Your usual size gives you the intended shape, and sizing up gives you something quite oversized.

An Italian blouson runs short and slim. Expect to go up from your usual, particularly through the chest.

So on one page, a medium is four different garments. The practical answer is to decide what goes underneath before you decide the size, and if you are ordering online and unsure, ring the Belfast shop and we will measure the chest flat.

Waxed cotton, and whether it is waterproof

The honest answer is no, and it is worth having the numbers.

Waterproofing is measured as hydrostatic head: how much water pressure a fabric withstands before it leaks, tested under ISO 811 and ISO 1420.

BS EN 343, the European specification for protective clothing against rain, sets its requirement by class, starting at around 82cm of water gauge and running to roughly 204cm at the highest class.

Waxed cotton jackets have historically been accepted at 30 to 80cm.

So waxed cotton sits below even the lowest class of the European rain standard.

A note on the numbers you see in outdoor shops: those are usually quoted in millimetres on a different and more generous retail convention, where 5,000mm is basic and 20,000mm is high performance. The two scales are not comparable and mixing them is how people end up thinking a waxed jacket is rated when it is not. It is water-repellent, it sheds a shower, and in sustained Atlantic rain it will wet through. That is not a criticism of Barbour, it is what waxed cotton is, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling.

Looking after a waxed jacket

Barbour's own instructions, and they matter because getting this wrong is permanent.

Clean it with cold water and a sponge. No hot water, no soap of any kind.

Never put it in the washing machine. That removes the wax coating permanently and the jacket cannot then be re-waxed.

Re-wax roughly once a year, depending on how much you wear it. When you do, keep the wax off the corduroy collar, off the lining and out of the inside of the pockets. Hang it somewhere warm to dry overnight afterwards, and expect it to shed a little excess wax for a while, so keep it away from leather and upholstery.

Barbour has run a re-waxing and repair service since 1921, now branded Wax for Life, covering repair and re-wax, resale and customisation, alongside at-home kits in 6oz classic and 4oz lightweight. We have not quoted costs or turnaround times because Barbour does not publish them.

Which jacket for Northern Irish weather

Being straightforward about it: for genuinely sustained rain, none of the jackets on this page is the right answer, and the waxed ones least of all, because they sit below the lowest class of the European rain standard. Wool has no hydrostatic head rating at all.

What this collection is good for is the nine-tenths of the year that is dry, showery or cold, which is most of it.