The design and high quality of LEJ’s new outerwear

December 18, 2025

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The model LEJ has expanded fairly prior to now 12 months, including attention-grabbing outerwear and general designs which might be slightly extra subtle, slightly extra refined. And because of this, maybe extra suited to the PS reader.

Luke Walker, the founder, is an skilled designer who has labored for each style manufacturers (eg Lanvin) and extra basic ones (eg Dunhill). That mixture along with him being an actual product individual – obsessive about garment engineering and nice supplies – has all the time made him somebody I’ve admired. He additionally simply has nice fashion.

Nonetheless, the LEJ vary hasn’t all the time felt prefer it’s for me. The aesthetic appeared extra suited to André or Manish, who wrote on PS about their favorite LEJ items a number of years in the past.

Looking back that was in all probability unfair, and I used to be being slightly lazy. The LEJ merchandise are all very nicely made, actually good worth, and I targeted an excessive amount of on the quick-release jackets and brief trousers, on the expense of easier chores and nice blousons.

Not having a bodily retailer didn’t assist, all the time making me slightly uncertain concerning the barely playful particulars. However I lastly corrected that earlier this month, visiting Luke’s studio in Dalston and making an attempt on every part he had. I cherished the tailoring and the knits, and am blissful to reply questions on both. But it surely was the outerwear that basically received me excited.

One of many causes I’ve all the time loved speaking to Luke is that he has a really thought of view on every part he designs. It’s not nearly recreating one thing from the previous, or about what’s going to promote probably the most. That could be a bit extra customary at a style firm, however classic-menswear manufacturers, in my expertise, generally tend to:

simply reproduce an archive piece
not see the necessity for any design view, or
not have expertise both approach to design one thing nicely

Take the leather-based jacket of Luke’s proven above. The form was impressed by outdated Ivy monitor jackets, which have a really clear entrance and panels which might be lower on the bias, making a quite simple however practical design. The again, in the meantime, is taken from a Swiss ski jacket, which had a lot of quantity and a very tight cinch on the waist to maintain all the warmth in.

“These are very practical, mid-century designs,” says Luke, “however they create a silhouette I actually love – an outdated Hollywood one in a means, with that large spherical again, nipped waist and tight booty under. Or just like the dock employee’s, the Carhartt silhouette, with the roomy jacket and close-fitting denims. Or a Wyoming cowboy in his waisted denim jacket.”

The extra examples Luke offers, the extra you see the hyperlinks between these completely different references – and also you see why the jacket has been constructed on this specific means, engineered from components.

In addition they provide help to perceive the product. You see why the again is large and the sleeves large. They’re a part of a cohesive, full design. Even probably the most quirky element right here – the strings that tighten the waist on the again – make extra sense whenever you see it within the context of that Swiss jacket that wanted to be tightened otherwise for every particular person.

Curiously, Luke all the time has a means he likes to put on these items – as you’d anticipate, given the design concerned – however he shies away from saying how something ought to be worn. “My nephew has this denim shirt I gave him and he by no means washes it,” he says. “He wears a T-shirt beneath and washes that as an alternative, as a result of he loves that sharp, flat indigo the denim begins with.

“That’s the exact opposite of me. I really like garments which might be thrashed, nothing is extra stunning to me than an outdated piece of clothes. But it surely seems to be nice on him and that’s his means.”

With the leather-based jacket, the corollary is maybe somebody loosening these ties on the again, so it’s not fairly as cinched. “Or, the other – somebody shopping for a dimension up and cinching it in much more, to magnify the impact,” says Luke.

The second motive I really like speaking to Luke is that we all the time get into supplies – significantly, the perfect materials for the look and performance of the garment.

Luke’s largest outerwear launch this winter, for instance, is a down-filled jacket with an outer shell in rip-stop nylon (above). “My default is pure fibres, and I really like the outdated 60/40 supplies the classic down jackets have been manufactured from,” he says. “However for this jacket I needed one thing large and spherical, puffed with down. The cotton mixes don’t broaden like that.”

There’s that design intention – one thing shorter and rounded that almost all puffas, actually sitting above the seat fairly than midway down it. After which there’s the practical aspect – “That is my biking jacket, I take my daughter to high school daily on my bike after which come into the showroom. It needed to be one thing I may put on all by means of the winter doing that.”

I particularly like it when Luke talks about private references like this, as a result of it brings the enjoyable, style aspect of LEJ right down to earth, and I instantly see myself sporting it.

The down jacket actually is nice – a barely extra exaggerated form than the blouson, however in two nice colors, with nice particulars just like the chevrons on the physique, veg-tanned leather-based behind the snaps, and in each instances reversible to a darker, extra under-the-radar color.

Maybe probably the most basic of the brand new outerwear items, although, is the opposite new launch of the winter, the shearling jacket (above). That is primarily based on the form of a LEJ staple, the Plage Coat, which having tried on once more I actually should get a model of (in all probability black or brown) this summer time.

What the shearling jacket most clearly illustrates for me is the standard of supplies Luke makes use of – and the worth for cash in them. It is a pretty comfortable merino shearling, though the standard really comes by means of most on the within, which is unlined and simply has the comfortable nappa leather-based. It’s a stunning piece, and from any designer model could be way more.

“It’s slightly like an Arnys garment,” says Luke. “It gives the look of being easy and easy, all concerning the supplies. However really it’s exhausting being that easy – heaps has to enter it. As a result of this doesn’t have a belt like the opposite Plages we introduced the physique in a bit, however solely a contact as a result of we nonetheless needed the impression of a clear, straight silhouette.

“And we modified a lot of issues by means of sampling, like initially there was shearling on the within of the collar and leather-based on the surface, but it surely regarded too Tyrolean.”

High of my hit listing is the LEJ leather-based jacket, as a result of it’s all the time been one thing I’ve needed however discovered exhausting to put on. This looks as if the right mixture of high quality and distinctive however delicate fashion. (My classic one is lately, sadly, too small.)

However each the shearling and down jacket are in all probability the perfect examples I’ve seen, and if I don’t get both this 12 months, I’ll definitely have them on my want listing for subsequent. Any time I see Luke going ahead, I’ll additionally speak to him about all of the design and materials choices concerned. For a product nerd like me, it actually brings them alive.

Luke’s studio is open by appointment any time, by the best way, and he has extra public open days pretty commonly – the subsequent one is Jan 30-31. I’d say the open days are simpler, however a personal appointment offers you extra time. They’re additionally higher for out-of-towners who can’t essentially make a specific date.

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