Maison Labiche's Lemonnier Birds Jacket: embroidered birds, Portuguese-made

What it is

The Lemonnier Birds Jacket sits in Maison Labiche’s outerwear range, filed simply under jacket. It’s a button-front piece, the kind you reach for over a shirt or a knit when the weather turns but you still want something with a bit of presence. The brand offers it in two size groupings, S/M and L/XL, plus a colour or finish variant called Carbon Washed.

What sets it apart from a plain jacket is on the front: birds worked in leather, appliquéd and then embroidered. It’s a single motif, repeated as the jacket’s signature, rather than an all-over print or a seasonal graphic. Two patch pockets sit on the front as well, giving it a practical everyday shape underneath the decorative work.

Why it exists

Maison Labiche describes itself as a brand built around embroidered clothing for women and men, with stated manufacturing in Europe and a focus on decorative, personalised detail across its collections. Read against that description, the Lemonnier Birds Jacket looks like a direct expression of the house’s approach: take a classic jacket shape and give it one clear identity through embroidery and appliqué, rather than through cut or colour alone.

What matters

The composition is 98% cotton and 2% lycra. That small amount of stretch matters more than it looks — a jacket that’s almost entirely cotton but carries a touch of lycra will hold its shape better through movement, at the shoulders and across the back, without turning stiff. It reads as a cotton garment first, with just enough give to make it comfortable to wear rather than purely structural.

The production is split into three stages: the fabric is woven in Spain, the dyeing happens in Portugal, and the jacket itself is made in Portugal. For anyone who cares about knowing where a garment actually comes from, this is a fuller picture than most labels give — it’s not just “made in Europe”, it’s a traceable sequence from loom to dye to sewing floor.

The opening is a button front, the most classic and least fussy way to close a jacket — no zips, no hidden closures to fail or catch. The two patch pockets on the front are a straightforward, visible detail: the kind you can put a hand in without thinking, rather than a slashed or hidden pocket that needs finding.

The decoration itself — birds in leather, appliquéd and then embroidered on top — is the one feature that defines the whole piece. Appliqué means the leather birds are attached as a separate layer before the embroidery stitches over and around them, so the motif has actual texture and relief rather than being flat needlework. It’s the reason someone would choose this jacket over a plain one.

Care is dry clean only. No machine washing, no bleach, no tumble drying, no ironing. That’s a firm set of restrictions, and it follows logically from the leather appliqué and embroidery — a washing machine or an iron would risk the very detail that makes the jacket what it is.

Day to day

Getting dressed with this jacket is simple on the surface: undo or fasten the front buttons, use the two patch pockets for keys, a phone, gloves.

Where it asks for more attention is in upkeep. Because the garment is dry clean only, it’s not a jacket to throw in with a normal laundry load, and it can’t be steamed back into shape with a home iron. That means planning ahead — a spill or a crease means a trip to a cleaner, not a quick fix at home.

Technical specifications

Characteristic	Value
Category	Outerwear / Jacket
Variants	S/M, L/XL, Carbon Washed
Composition	98% cotton, 2% lycra
Weaving	Spain
Dyeing	Portugal
Manufacturing	Portugal
Opening	Button front
Pockets	Two patch pockets
Decoration	Leather birds, appliquéd and embroidered
Care	Dry clean only — no washing, no bleach, no tumble drying, no ironing
Product reference	AAMLEMONNIEBIRD

What the brand says

Maison Labiche describes itself, in its own presentation, as a house built around embroidered clothing for women and men, with manufacturing stated to be in Europe and collections organised by gender, with embroidered personalisation as a recurring theme.