Our latest project we have been working on is the design and making of a new jacket which we are calling the Báinín.

Drawn from traditional Irish clothing references from the west of Ireland and images of fishermen and land labourers of the last centuries, this jacket was a simple shape, collarless and with deep pockets, sometimes with buttons sometimes without. It was practical and could be worn over jumpers or shirts depending on the season.

Manchán Magan Travel Writer, Irish language and Folklore, is a lover and constant wearer of the Báinín jacket and it was with his support and encouragement and personal experience with this his favourite piece of clothing, we set about designing a new version, suitable for the way we live today.

The traditional jackets were made with hand spun native undyed wool so were typically cream or soft white in colour. Over time the name Báinín, became a reference not only to the colour but to the jacket itself. Variations were made and using dyed wool tweeds also became more common over time. It’s a beautiful word, so we are calling our latest addition to our STABLE clothing collection the Báinín Jacket.

As a piece of clothing it is very practical for the way we wear clothes today. It’s a single layer of wool woven tweed cloth, cardigan style, no collar, with off the shoulder seams. It’s light and layerable, an outer jacket over a t shirt or worn under a heavier outer coat. It looks great and is really comfortable.

Our design focused on simplicity, ease and comfort. We selected beautiful tweed woven by Andrew at Kerry Woollen Mills to make up this jacket. We added Irish linen into the mix by lining the pockets and introducing an inside facing for a flash of colour.

In our several chats with Manchán, he told us of his father who wore the jackets always and brought in 2 of these to see and use as references for our new design. It was wonderful to see the hand stitching and the detail and to see how the wool had aged so well with so much use.

Over the last few months our Báinín muse Manchán has helped us with testing out our sample patterns until we all felt we had it right. We think we do and are so happy to add it to our clothing collection. The Báinín jacket will be an enduring piece of clothing wearable for today. Style and function to last.

History of the Báinín

(pron. bánín) n. a jacket or overcoat made of woollen cloth.

Báinín is the Irish word for a type of homespun wool cloth traditionally made in the west of Ireland. It is a diminutive of the word bán which means white. Báinín, the word itself, became synonymous with a jacket and an example of this is Fear an bháinín, the Connemara labourer which infers the man wearing the jacket made of the rough spun wool cloth.

Here is the definition as given in Ó Dónaill’s dictionary; báinín, m. (gs. ~, pl. ~í). 1. ~ (tíre), woven woollen cloth. ~ brocach, speckled homespun cloth. ~ bán, white homespun cloth. 2. Flannel. ~ dearg, glas, red, grey, flannel. 3. Jacket made of white homespun woollen cloth. F:Fear an bháinín (bháin), the Connemara labourer.

Click here to see the Báinín Tweed Jacket by STABLE