The Long Afternoon — nine knitted polos
There is a stretch of the day that nobody has ever managed to name properly. It starts once lunch has been cleared and ends when somebody turns a light on. Two, three, four hours. Nothing is urgent in it. Nothing is finished in it either.
That is the whole brief for Volume One.
The sporting hours
The first four pieces come from the noisier half of the afternoon. Stripes and bands and blocked panels, the visual language of pavilions and awnings and touchlines — things built to be sat under while somebody else does the running.
The Pavilion is one navy band across ecru, tipped at the collar and cuff. The oldest arrangement in sport and still the one that works.
The Interval is black, cut twice with ecru, doubled at the cuff and hem. For the gap between the first half and whatever happens next.
The Awning is rust and cream in wide waffled bands — the stripe you sit under when the sun gets serious.
The Long Field reads bottom to top: olive, then weather, then more olive. Grass, sky, grass.
The quiet hours
The other five are what the afternoon becomes once the light starts going. Three buttons, no stripe, nothing to read.
The Smoke Room in charcoal, for low light and lower conversation. The Plain Hour in undyed ecru, which will wear out first because you will reach for it without deciding. The Weather Report in oatmeal, flecked with rust and slate so the forecast shifts as you turn it to the window. The Orchard in moss olive, green that has been rained on. And The Last Train in midnight navy — late, dark, and dressed enough for wherever you have just been.
How they are made
Knitted rather than cut and sewn from woven cloth. That is the one technical thing worth understanding here, because it explains everything you can see: the stripes sit inside the fabric instead of on top of it, and the texture carries straight through a colour change rather than stopping at the seam.
Small runs, knitted in Bhiwandi, Maharashtra. Nine colourways at a time. When one sells through it either comes back or it does not — we would rather retire a colour than water it down.
The fit
Regular, all nine. Straight through the body, soft shoulder, a collar that rolls instead of standing to attention. S to XL. If you are between sizes take the smaller one; knit gives.
See all nine · Read the colour notes · Check the measurements