Simply omitting all padding in the shoulder area is fine with an unstructured lightweight jacket but doesn’t produce the smooth line we look for in more tailored garments like sports or suit jackets. Unpadded cloth follows the irregularities of muscle and bone in the human shoulder and some small padding or canvassing is needed to smooth these out. Done well the result is a work of art and makes for a look and feel that is a world away from the military style built up and squared off shoulders of an English jacket. These differences would not be noticeable to the average person, but to the obsessive it stands out a mile.  Still, the perfect natural shoulder seems to be an elusive quest for clothing makers.

I’ve never owned a Southwick jacket so I can’t comment about them, but photos of them always look good. . Does anyone make a good natural shoulder now? The Italians maybe, again I can’t really comment about that either. Personally I think that Brooks jackets from the golden age epitomise the natural shoulder look, Brook’s consistency in getting it right seemed to set them aside from the others, but I stopped taking any notice of what they’re doing currently some time ago. Press have got it right spectacularly at times over the years and at other times much less so, the shoulders in their jackets went downhill once most of their manufacturing went to Canada, they’re always somehow a bit off.

I have Southwick jacket bought from Chiltern Street about 5 years ago. It's their Cambridge model that has virtually no shoulder to it what so ever.

It is probably my favourite jacket as it contains all the Ivy correct details but is much more refined than a Keydge.