He’s swapped the country’s seat of power for a shepherd’s hut, so it stands to reason that David Cameron’s done away with his suiting in favour of a rather rustic old shacket. Yes, shacket – a happy portmanteau of ‘shirt’ and ‘jacket’, in case you hadn’t heard, and all the rage in the hipster environs of east London. Granted, that garden shed cost £25,000 whereas this Marks & Spencer cover-up – now discontinued – would have cost a great deal less.
The former Prime Minister was spotted in the fleecy outfit at a horse-racing event in Gloucestershire, alongside wife Samantha Cameron, pairing it with a baseball cap for a look that was swiftly, thanks to the internet meme-machine, compared to that of a dodgy ticket tout. It’s certainly a fall from suiting grace, but he’s a country squire now (well, as countryfied as you can get in the Soho Farmhouse-adjacent environs of Chipping Norton) and presumably has little need for smart get-up.
So what exactly is a shacket? Well, for starters, it’s not appropriate, or substantial enough, for a freezing January, even if your version is in Black Watch tartan like Cameron’s – a true Scot would never be in something so flimsy in Arctic temperatures. It’s shoulder month attire, designed for spring and autumn, because it’s innately lightweight, a halfway point between a shirt and jacket.
In a sense, although fashion parlance has termed it a ‘shacket’, it’s nothing more evolved or complicated than the lumberjack shirts of Paul Bunyon, given a natty re-branding by some etail marketeer. Lumberjack shirts, and variants thereof, became the uniform of choice for a certain kind of bearded hipster in the mid 20-teens, part of a bigger trend for faux-rusticity. The shacket’s a move on from that, essentially what your grandfather would have termed an ‘overshirt’ – that easy, casual piece of outerwear for weekend pottering.
It’s hard wearing too, employing fabrics like corduroy or flannel, which makes it an informed choice for the countryside. It’s not as cumbersome as a bulky jacket, which can become overly warm on public transport or in the car. And if you’re of a particularly style-literate temperament, you could even ‘double shacket’ – don a lighter chambray or denim shirt underneath the more heavy version. If you’re particularly fancy, a neckerchief would add a French insouciance, and boots with solid jeans (white would up the style ante immeasurably) would finish off the look.
As for Cameron, perhaps it’s time to layaway the shacket until spring in favour of something with more heft, and he’d do well to invest in a more sprightly version (or darn the one he has). Over the baseball cap on a 55-year old, we shall draw a discreet veil.
