The bomber is the easiest jacket to wear and the easiest to buy in the wrong size. Its shape is forgiving enough that a bad fit does not look obviously wrong on the hanger — it just looks slightly off on you, and most people cannot say why.
Here is where it should sit, what to ignore, and a thirty-second test you can do in the changing room.
Should a bomber jacket be tight or loose?
Neither, and the distinction matters. A bomber should be close through the body and easy across the shoulders. That combination is the whole point of the silhouette: the elasticated hem and cuffs pull the jacket in at the ends, so the volume that remains needs somewhere to sit. If it is tight at the shoulder, the ribbing has nothing to gather and the jacket rides up.
The practical version: you should be able to cross your arms in front of you without the back pulling. If you feel the seam across your shoulder blades, size up. If you can fit a flat hand between the ribbed hem and your body with room to spare, size down.
What is the ideal sizing for a bomber jacket?
Work through four points in this order. Shoulder first, because it is the one thing that cannot be altered.
- Shoulder seam — should land at the outer edge of your shoulder bone, or very slightly beyond. Past that and the sleeve head collapses into a droop.
- Chest — zipped, you want roughly two fingers of space at the sternum. Enough to layer, not enough to billow.
- Hem — the ribbing should sit at your hip bone and stay there when you raise your arms. A bomber that rides to the waist when you reach is too short in the body.
- Cuff — the ribbing ends at the wrist bone, not over the hand. You should see a centimetre of shirt or knit cuff if you are wearing one.
Our Bomber Jacket is cut slim through the body with deliberate room at the shoulder for exactly this reason. The rest of the outerwear sits in men’s jackets and women’s jackets.
Are bomber jackets meant to be oversized?
Some are cut that way now, and there is nothing wrong with it — but understand what you are choosing. An oversized bomber reads casual and streetwear-adjacent. It stops working over tailoring, and it will date faster than a clean fit, because the amount of volume that looks current changes every few seasons.
A true-to-size bomber does not date, because it is following your shoulder line rather than a trend. If you are buying one jacket to wear for several autumns, buy the one that fits. If you already own that and want a second for weekends, oversized is a legitimate choice.
Fitting a bomber over a knit
This is the step most people skip, and it is the one that causes returns. A bomber that fits beautifully over a t-shirt in August can be unwearable over a jumper in November.
Size the jacket over the heaviest layer you actually intend to wear under it. If that is a fine-gauge knit, your normal size is almost certainly right. If it is a chunky crewneck, try the next size and check the shoulder again — you are looking for the jacket to close without strain at the chest while the shoulder seam stays put.
A fine-gauge layer makes this far easier. The Quarter-Zip Knit is cut Slim Fit precisely so it disappears under outerwear rather than fighting it; see the rest in knitwear.
The thirty-second test
Put the jacket on, zip it fully, and do these four things in order:
- Reach both arms straight forward. The back should not pull tight across the shoulders.
- Raise both arms to shoulder height. The hem should stay at your hip.
- Drop your arms. The sleeve ribbing should settle at the wrist bone.
- Turn side-on. The jacket should follow your torso, not stand away from it.
Pass all four and the size is right. Fail the first, size up. Fail the fourth, size down.
One last thing
Fit is worth more than any other variable in outerwear — more than fabric, more than colour, more than price. A correctly sized jacket in a plain finish will always look better than an expensive one cut for someone else’s frame.
The current season is collected in Autumn ’26 for men and Autumn ’26 for women.