A Silhouette Forged in the Sky

At ten thousand feet, warmth was survival. In the cockpits of fighter planes, a jacket wasn’t an accessory — it was equipment. Cropped at the waist so it wouldn’t snag on harnesses, elastic hems to trap heat, pockets for maps and tools. These were the military flight jackets of the 1930s and 1940s, later known simply as ‘bombers’. Built for men whose lives depended on them, their form was dictated entirely by function.

What no one could have predicted was that this silhouette — waist-length, balanced, and endlessly flattering — would outlive the war. Utility had stumbled into elegance. Our issue of The Chronicles this week, uncovers the history, heritage and prestige of this jacket and provides a bit of context for why we absolutely needed this to be part of our launch capsule.

Blouson if You Please: The Bomber Finds Its Civility

When the guns fell silent, the jacket refused to retire. Soldiers and airmen brought their flight jackets home, and civilians soon followed suit. By the late 1940s and into the 1950s, the silhouette had been refined and rechristened across the Channel as the ‘blouson’. The word itself is French, a diminutive of blouse — the traditional workman’s smock or overshirt — so blouson quite literally translates to “little blouse.” The name captured the jacket’s essence: short, cinched at the waist, and practical. In post-war France and Italy, designers reinterpreted the cockpit-born bomber often times in suede, among other materials, giving it a continental sophistication. What had once braced pilots against the cold became the jacket of choice for men leaning back in café chairs on the Boulevard Saint-Germain or even the Via Veneto — proof that military grit could be reborn as quiet elegance.

In Europe, suede quite often became the fabric of choice. Softer, more luxurious, more tactile than leather, it transformed a purely utilitarian jacket into one of casual refinement. Worn in Paris cafés, on Milanese boulevards, and along London’s Kings Road, the suede blouson became shorthand for understated cool. It was no longer about cockpit survival — it was about effortless style.

While today’s high-street “bombers” are churned out in synthetics destined for obsolescence, the true blouson has always been different: timeless geometry in cloth, a garment with the rare ability to age with you.

Bath’s Royal Crescent: An Ode in Stone

To understand our interpretation, you must walk the cobblestones of Bath. Rising above the city, the Royal Crescent arcs in perfect harmony — thirty terraced houses forming a half-moon of Georgian symmetry. Built in the late 18th century, its proportions are no accident. This was architecture as philosophy: measured, rational, timeless.

That same philosophy guides the Royal Crescent Blouson. Our jacket doesn’t mimic a relic of the 1940s, nor does it chase seasonal novelty. Instead, it borrows what has always made the blouson endure — its proportion, its balance — and reimagines it with the refinement of Bath’s crescent.

Like the architecture, it is precise without being rigid, elegant without excess. Geometry translated into suede.

Utility in the Modern Wardrobe

Why should a jacket with its roots in the sky matter today? Because the needs of the modern man remain surprisingly similar. A jacket must still move easily, function in unpredictable weather, and carry him through settings both casual and refined.

The suede blouson does all three. Light enough for autumn evenings, warm enough for October winds. As comfortable with denim and boots as it is over flannels or tailored trousers. A piece that softens and deepens with time, gaining character rather than losing it.

This is not fashion designed to expire. It is an object designed to endure.

Fashion’s Subtle Argument

Every man must eventually choose: buy often, or buy well. The blouson makes the argument for the latter. Its silhouette is immune to trend — cropped yet not severe, structured yet relaxed.

Worn with a rollneck, it recalls mid-century cinema. Worn with an Oxford and brogues, it becomes European refinement. Unlike puffers or fashion bombers destined for the landfill, the blouson doesn’t shout. It doesn’t try too hard. It simply gets it right.

And isn’t that the essence of true style?

The Arc & Iveagh Reinterpretation

French-sourced hides + British heritage tannery = instant classic

At Arc & Iveagh, outerwear must do more than shield from the cold. It must carry a story.

The Royal Crescent Blouson is our retelling of this silhouette’s journey. Cut in supple suede, its lines honed for proportion and movement, it honors the bomber’s functional DNA while embodying the Crescent’s architectural poise. Every detail — from collar stance to hem finish — has been refined for the man who values heritage and craft.

This is not nostalgia. It is continuity. The opening chapter of The Odyssey of the Isles, our debut collection. Just as Bath’s crescent stands as a monument to proportion, so too does this jacket stand as a testament to balance in cloth.

From Cockpits to Cobblestones, Legacy in Suede

The silhouette we now call the blouson was forged in cockpits, refined in cafés, and now reimagined in Bath. It began as survival gear. It became a style icon. Today, it returns as a piece meant not just to be worn, but to be kept.

This isn’t outerwear for a season. It’s outerwear for a life.

The man who wears it is not chasing trend. He is carrying forward a legacy — of utility, of elegance, of proportion that endures. And that, we believe, is what makes a jacket truly worth owning.