Denham‘s new Social jacket for their 2011 Spring/Summer collection blends detailing from vintage WWII British army field jackets with a classic Barbour-style 3/4 length motorcycle touring jacket silhouette. Mixing fabrics to create an aesthetically beautiful and yet very utilitarian jacket, the Social’s main shell is spring-weight waxed canvas from authentic British Millerain, with panels of soft smooth military twill under the arms and along the side-back panels. The same fabric is used for “rifle-shoulder quilting”, although the extra padding is more for a messenger-bag strap than the elephant gun stashed in your closet. The detailing of the jacket is superb, including integrated flip-up throat flaps and under-flap button tabs, articulated arms via Denham’s signature inner-elbow darting, contoured cuffs and a one-handed ski glove-type pull cord waist-adjuster at the back. All that aside, the best part of the Social is that it allows the wearer to decide if he wants to show Denham’s branding or not — a feature we wish more brands would integrate. A strap of ballistic seat-belt grade webbing hinges at the left arm inset seam and snaps into place on the chest when you want to show some branding, or flips backwards snapping into a second position over the sleeve shoulder where it shows no branding. A very nice touch on a beautiful jacket.