The Lawrence

Went through the latest draft of the lining with Tom today. On the list to add: George Brough on one of his bikes, the Eden Project, the Minack Theatre and the little church at Mwnt. Some of the figures are almost faceless, so they need work too.

The pattern is digital and the tech pack is finished. Today I'm with Oscar, a tailor here in Nottingham, to get it into cloth and onto a body.

The Lawrence is getting a quilted lining, insulated with British wool. It means another version, but I'd rather get it right than get it out. The laser-etched Corozo buttons have arrived, and I've found a production partner here in the UK.

There's only so much you can fix over Zoom. So I've driven to Norfolk and booked a hotel for two nights to work with my pattern cutter in person. Tomorrow we go through the toile, line by line.

Tom has sent the first pencil sketches for the lining. The idea is a journey through the seasons, told through a motorbike build: autumn for gathering parts, winter for assembly, spring for the final touches and summer for riding. Winter brings pine forests, Skye, castle ruins and whisky.

Every one of the size samples is an inch too small across the chest. An inch doesn't sound like much, but fixing it means redrawing the armhole, shoulders, sleeves, back and front. And having seen a photo of myself in one, I don't like the back either. Today I signed with a new pattern cutter to start again from scratch. October pre-orders aren't going to happen.

The samples are back. Small, Large and XL in black, and four Mediums in white, each with different buttons: black, tortoiseshell and brown wood. Next job, dyeing the white ones to see what colour this jacket wants to be. Pre-orders are pencilled in for October.

I've been wearing the moleskin prototypes for three months and I've learnt one thing. Moleskin is a fur magnet. Every photo has needed hours of editing to get rid of the dust and Charlie's hair. So it's back to the drawing board, and the new lead is a heavyweight organic cotton gabardine from a small mill just south of Paris. Gabardine is what officers' trench coats were made from in the First World War, so my great grandfather would have known it well.

The Lawrence is the first jacket I've brought to the production house here in Bahrain. Today I signed off the second prototype and the grading from Small to XL. They're also making four Mediums in white so I can test buttons and colour before I commit to anything.

Before Tom draws anything final, I need to know how his ink work survives being printed on cotton. So I've made a test sheet, 1 by 1.5 metres, divided into boxes with artwork at different sizes. Off to the printers.