Pre-order, shipping the second and third week of November.
Kohutt began at sea, with a lee cloth sewn to stop a sailor being thrown out of his bunk. The smock comes from the same years. Sailing alone down the Breton coast in 2006, at the start of the long way home to Australia, was the first sight of French fishermen in the vareuse.
A loose, pull-on smock. Never fitted, worn hard, and good for a deck, a bench or an easel.
Ours is cut from the last of the navy Australian oilskin, with a tall collar, a split neck, deep front pockets, a pencil pocket on the chest and red bar tacks at every point of strain.
The same cut went ashore as the bleu de travail and ended up on mechanics and painters. It wants the same things in both places: room to move, cloth that takes dirt, nothing that doesn't need to be there.
Oilskin adds warmth and keeps the wind out. It marks and softens with wear.
