The Goya

There is a jacket most men have never heard of, and a smaller number will recognise on sight and quietly judge you well for wearing. We call ours the Goya.

It began life in Spain a century ago as an unstructured hunting jacket, and every detail still earns its keep. No padding, no canvas, a collarless lapel that buttons to the throat against the wind, no vent to let the weather in, and cuffs that fasten closed for the same reason.

That construction is exactly why it works now. It has too much presence for a bomber and too little formality for a blazer, which is the gap most Auckland wardrobes are missing. Light enough in a fine wool to wear open over a t-shirt on a warm evening, substantial enough in a heavier knit to do a coat's job through autumn without a coat's formality.

Because it takes no padding or canvas to hold its shape, it moves the way a knit does rather than the way a jacket does, which is the whole point when the occasion calls for something more considered than a shirt but less formal than tailoring.

For the man who already owns his blazers, it is the next purchase that actually adds something, a genuinely different shape rather than another version of what he already has. We call ours the Goya. If you know, you know. If you don't yet, come try one on.