April is the true catfish of all British months. It’s cold, but you need sunglasses. It’s raining, but too humid for a heavy coat. The weather you wake up to is never the weather it’ll be on your commute home. And the wildest part is that these meteorological mind games occur all day long. The weather is in transition and the only way you’ll survive is to have a wardrobe that’s equally adaptable. That means smart layers, and one of the smartest you can own is a shacket.
So perhaps the real question is: what on earth is a “shacket”? To break it down, it’s a souped-up shirt that’s cut from a more rugged fabric than your regular poplin cotton dress shirt, but is still lighter than your full-on jacket
(generally corduroy, linen or wool). It will have a slightly more relaxed fit to enable easy layering over a T-shirt or a fine-gauge rollneck, but it’s not so oversized that it can’t be worn underneath an overcoat or quilted vest. It’ll often have extra details like button breast pockets or even internal hand pockets on the torso. In short, it’s got the kind of versatility that’ll make it your most reliable wardrobe addition this month, and for many months to come.
