P41 Herringbone Utility Jacket

Ten ounce cotton herringbone twill, sport collar, four metal buttons and three patch pockets. It is the 1941 utility jacket remade in the same fabric and the same straight cut, to wear over a tee or a shirt.

The 1941 piece

The P41 is the work uniform the United States Marine Corps adopted in November 1941: a jacket and a pair of trousers, replacing the khaki cotton of the previous decade. The name is just the date. It was not designed for combat. It was fatigue and training wear, for unloading trucks, digging, washing decks, and that is why it left khaki behind for cotton herringbone twill, thicker and easier to wash, in a sage green straight from the period spec sheets.

When the Pacific war started, weeks later, the work uniform became a combat uniform for lack of an alternative: it was tough, comfortable and already in the warehouses. It is one of the most photographed work jackets of the century, without ever having been meant to be seen.

The design is the minimum: sport collar, four copper toned metal buttons, one chest pocket and two at the hem, all patched on the outside, no back pleats, no flap, no belt. The chest pocket, on the left, took the corps' initials and emblem in stencil and ink, the eagle over the globe with the anchor behind. Inside the collar, a stamp with the size and the manufacturing contract number. With sun and saltwater washes the green went to grey, and it is for those faded pieces that the model is known today.

Ours reproduces that design as it was: same fabric, same three pockets, same stencil on the chest, same stamp in the collar. It is not a reinterpretation: it is the original design, remade.

The fabric is what gives the piece its name. Herringbone is the twill where the diagonal changes direction every band, forming the V pattern you see up close and lose from a distance. Here it comes in 10 oz cotton, a mid weight that has body without being stiff, and that softens with every wash without losing its shape.

The color is a deep army green, measured on the piece, with a ground pulled toward yellow. It goes with khaki, with raw denim and with brown, and slowly lightens at the seams and pocket edges, the way dyed cotton does.

The chest pocket, on the left, carries the reference military stencil, printed in black on the fabric. It is printed, not embroidered: over time it fades along with the jacket, and that is how the period piece aged too.

Closes with four darkened metal buttons. The collar is a sport collar with a stand: it stays up when you close the first button and lies flat when you open it.

The two hem pockets are flat and deep, no flap, the size of an open hand. The cuff has two buttons and one buttonhole, to close tighter or looser.

The cut is straight from shoulder to hem, no marked waist and no adjustment. Hip length. It is a mid season layer: on its own on cool days, over a sweatshirt on cold ones.

Specifications

• 100% cotton, 10 oz herringbone twill
• Sport collar with stand
• Four metal buttons, full opening
• One chest pocket with stencil, two patch pockets at the hem
• Cuff with adjustment button
• Straight cut, hip length
• Mid season layer

How to choose your size

The P41 is worn over a tee or a shirt, and the cut is straight, so the garment is a good deal wider than your chest. The chart already accounts for that: choose by your chest measurement, not by the letter you wear in a tee. Sizes follow the US chest number stamped inside the collar.

Garment measurements in inches / cm. Garment chest = full circumference. Fits chest = body range the size fits well, already allowing for layering underneath.

How to measure your chest. Standing, wearing only a tee, run the tape around the torso at armpit height, at the widest point, keeping the tape level across the back.

How to check against a jacket you already own. Lay the jacket closed on a table, measure armpit to armpit in a straight line and double it. Compare with the Garment chest column.

If you fall between two sizes, take the larger one.

Care

• Machine wash, delicate cycle, cold water, inside out
• Do not bleach, so neither the green nor the stencil stains
• Dry in the shade, on a hanger
• Iron on medium heat, inside out, not over the stencil

The stencil reproduces the marking of the 1941 piece. Wild Soul Co. has no affiliation with the United States Marine Corps or the United States government; the mention is historical.