The bomber jacket has a trust problem. Not because it’s a bad garment, far from it, but because so many versions of it look right on a hanger and wrong on an actual person living an actual life. Brown specifically is the colour that separates the ones worth owning from the ones that end up at the back of a wardrobe by February. Get the shade wrong and it reads cheap. Get the fit wrong and it reads sloppy. Get both right and you have something that works over a heavyweight knit, under nothing but a crew neck, and across more occasions than people give it credit for.

We’ve been looking at bombers in tan, cognac, tobacco, and deeper walnut tones, paying particular attention to how the leather or nylon sits at the waist and how the collar behaves unzipped. These are not fashion pieces waiting for a trend to carry them. They’re the kind of jackets that get better the more you reach for them.