Eight pieces make up the SIMPLE PROJECT AW26 outerwear selection, Soft Constructions. None of them give themselves up at a glance. The Hangzhou based designer brand, founded by designer duo Chen Hang and Wang Yue Feng, has built this season around construction you have to go looking for: a waist belt fixed only partway across the back, a throat latch that turns an open collar into a standing one, leather set beneath a button where the pull is hardest.
°Workwear, rebuilt
The Denim Worker Jacket takes the classic French cargo jacket and loosens it. Boxy, curved at the collar, closed with distressed tack buttons. The sleeves are where the shape comes from: puffy, gathered into cinched pleated cuffs, with contrasting fishtail eyelet stitching running where a plain seam would normally sit. Patch pockets at the chest and front. A straight centre-back seam. 100% cotton, washed to a gentle fade, in Light Indigo. Worn open it hangs square off the shoulder, and the fade keeps moving for as long as you keep wearing it.
An M65 sits behind the Belted Field Jacket: concealed double-pull zip, snap buttons spaced irregularly down the placket, slanted chest pocket flaps and half-cargo pockets that open from the side. Inverse pleats give the back room. The waist belt is partially fixed across it, so the jacket cinches and never comes loose in your hands. Dual-tone glossy twill, in Teal and Iron. Pulled in it holds a waist; left alone it goes back to being a field jacket.
°Coated surfaces
Two jackets this season work with a finish instead of a weave.
Cropped and fitted, the Coated Nylon Jacket has a two-way lapel collar, a windshield flap at the inner placket fastened by an offset button, large cargo pockets opening from the side, and leather reinforcement under the buttons. The 100% nylon shell is crisp and shirrs as you move. In Copper it catches light along every fold. It stops at the waistband and leaves everything below it visible.
The Coated Hunting Jacket runs to the hip in smooth coated PU with a subtle gloss. A buttoned throat latch under the collar turns the whole jacket into a stand collar, with a zigzag stitch worked underneath where only the wearer sees it. Latched, the collar frames the jaw. Unbuttoned, it drops open and you forget you are wearing it. An embedded drawstring at the waistline pulls the volume in, and looseleaf flaps hang front and back, in Stone and Midnight.
°Down, kept close
Only one down piece in the selection, and it is the only jacket here cut tight. The Quilted Biker Down Jacket closes with a custom double-pull zipper under a short banded collar that snaps shut at the throat. Argyle quilting across a high-gloss 100% nylon shell. Inside, lightweight goose down, graded from 70g in Small to 85g in Extra Large, so the warmth scales with the size. Split cuffs adjust on snaps, the side pockets zip invisibly, and a drawstring sits embedded in the hem. Navy and Tan. It is the one jacket here you can wear under another one.
°Volume and length
The Oversized Trench Coat is the largest piece in the selection. Below the knee, relaxed and boxy, with a stand collar closed by an adjustable buckle belt, a triangular buttoned throat tab and an asymmetric storm flap over a concealed placket. The waist belt sits at three placement levels, so the same coat reads high-waisted one day and dropped the next. Cotton plaid lining. Sand-washed lyocell and cotton outer, in Sand and Pine. At this length the coat moves as one weight and trails a half-step behind you.
That same length goes somewhere else on the Chesterfield Coat. Slightly dropped shoulder, cut in dual-tone herringbone tweed with a coarse brushed texture. A narrow notch lapel sits over a suede undercollar panel you only see when the collar is turned up. There is a jetted chest pocket on the inside, and an extra button that cinches the waist when you want the line closer. Camel and Stone. The brushed surface keeps it from reading as a suit coat.
°Knitted, but built as outerwear
The Hooded Cashmere Jacket is knitted in full fashioned construction, which means the panels are shaped on the machine instead of trimmed out of a sheet of fabric. Raglan sleeves, a high-collar hood, a detachable faux fur collar, a covered double zipper. Buttoned tabs at the side hem and button-adjustable tabs at the cuff take the width in. Double-faced knit in a brushed wool and cashmere blend, in Smoke and Espresso. It has the hand of a heavy sweater and the closures of a coat.
°The fabrics behind the SIMPLE PROJECT AW26 outerwear
The season divides three ways. Surface: coated nylon, coated PU, high-gloss nylon on the down jacket, glossy cotton-polyester twill on the field jacket. These reflect light and hold a crease. Hand: sand-washed lyocell and cotton on the trench, washed cotton denim on the worker jacket, both of which soften with wear. Weight: brushed herringbone tweed on the Chesterfield, brushed wool and cashmere on the hooded jacket, goose down inside the biker. The linings follow the same logic, cotton plaid in the trench, polyester in the Chesterfield, viscose and polyester in the hunting jacket.
°Sizing
SIMPLE PROJECT cuts smaller than western sizing. We recommend sizing up as it runs small. Detailed measurements sit on every product page. Models wear size Large across most of the range.
Eight jackets, and not one of them relies on a logo to be recognised.
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