How to Choose a Lightweight Jacket: Layering, Travel & Weather-Ready Picks

Generally characterised by being unlined, or very lightly lined, a lightweight jacket is designed for mild weather, 10-16 degrees-ish you might say. Perfect for mild weather protection, layering, and often compact enough to fold up and carry. No down-fill here. 

Lightweight jackets manifest in the sartorial world in the form of windbreakers and athletic shells, shackets (or overshirts), denim, and a bomber/varsity cut... among a boatload of other options. Each with their own fabric makeup, weather-proofing ability, and history-of-the-jacket kind of intrigue that in turn makes picking this seasonal spread that much harder. 

While we don't know how your internal body temperature works, the safe bet for a lightweight jacket is the in-between months, the April-May morning commutes, October evening walks before there's simply no time to enjoy daylight hours around work, but frankly, Summer evenings in the garden at a BBQ can get a bit cold without a good fill of beer in your system. 

And when the winter months are bitingly cold, some lightweights can layer underneath the big coat when it gets dragged out the back of your wardrobe. So actually, undefined by the seasons, there's a place for lightweight jackets almost consistently throughout the year. 

Wet and windy weather: 

A windbreaker, often crafted from a nylon or polyester, makes for a pretty good weatherproof option. Designed to block gusts of wind and light drizzle, windbreakers are highly breathable as well, so when the winds are high but the sun is out and feels proper hot on your back, they're able to keep you at a pretty happy medium. In a similar vain, athletic shells offer up the same breathability, and block wind. 

Mild weather, low winds but the suns not proper beaming yet: 

Overshirts, or shackets if you want, are a pretty decent option for when the sun's not making a consistent appearance throughout the day. Worn over a tee, buttoned up or open, overshirts offer a pretty good coverage for fluctuating temperatures. Other options for this kind of weather are things like gilets, light quilting and bombers or denim jackets. They don't have the same wet weather qualities, however, so an umbrella may be a necessary choice. 

Not strictly weather, but travelling abroad or just travelling in general where high levels of movement may occur:

Flight-hoppers: We've all been there, leaving the house at 2am to get to the airport in time for a 6am flight, the dead of the night is cold, the Welcome Break stop for a McDonalds and a nosey round WH Smith is cold, the airport is baltic. Up in the air on the plane is fresh... and by that we mean cold. But that first step off the plane on the other side? Proper warm and would feel considerably better without carting round a bulky jacket while you wait for your coach transfer. So, the solution for this exact universal scenario, something foldable, easy to carry, a Track Jacket perhaps, a Harrington, lightly lined, no bulk when you fold (or screw it up) to go in your backpack. 

Trail-masters: Likewise, for the intrepid explorers among us, from base to summit, temps change. You work up a sweat, the wind chops and changes, you need snacks you don't need the extra cargo to cart up to the top like some kind of mule. A pocketed, lightweight, foldable type of jacket covers most bases. 

* we're not guaranteeing all windbreaker or weatherproof jackets have FULL showerproof properties. 

In short, whichever you want to wear. But, to break down by style or occasion, it'll probably look something like this.

Sporty and casual: Windbreakers, athletic shells, track jackets.

Clean, smarter styles (pub or dinner): Bomber jackets, light leather jackets, denim, macs and Harrington style cuts.

Smart-casual, workwear style (coffee shop date): Overshirts, chore coats, field jackets. 

Layering with sweats and hoodies: Gilets, denim jackets, varsity jackets.

Extra warmth without the heavy fill: Light quilted jackets and liners. 

Unpredictable weathers and commuting: Waterproofs

Goes without saying, there are a lot of lightweight jackets out there, so with a spread that looks like this one, picking your 'Life' jacket isn't easy. We've laid out the ingredients to each type of lightweight, when they'll work, and how they're souped up. So the formula to find the right one is simply to try them on for size. And when you find the style that works for you, keep it close.