www.craghoppers.com | £90
Craghoppers is known for making good value outdoor kit and at £90 the Kimiko is the cheapest down gilet in this women’s test. It also offers the least warmth, with a down fill power of 500, but that should still keep you pretty toasty in cold conditions. The Kimiko Gilet is lightweight, at just 269g in a size 12, and it packs down nice and small – it can go far smaller than it does when it’s packed into its stash pocket, which still leaves quite a chunky package. The outer layer of the jacket is protected by Craghoppers’ Smartdry technology – a water-repellent finish that will protect the jacket if you get caught in a rain shower (although you wouldn’t want to use it in prolonged wet weather).
The jacket it a really nice fit – it’s spacious enough to fit easily over a couple of layers, yet fitted enough to be worn as a mid-layer if necessary. It comes up nice and high around the neck and there’s a guard to stop the zip from rubbing at the chin. It’s also easily adjustable at the hem to fine-tune the fitting or to keep the wind out.
The Kimiko has three pockets. The two main handwarmer ones are fleece-lined to make them extra snug, which is a joy, and the zips have toggles so they’re easy to use when you’re wearing gloves. There’s also a huge interior pocket – big enough to take an OS map or as many valuables as you could possibly need – but the lining is big and floppy as this pocket also doubles as the stash pocket for the jacket. And given that when it’s stashed into the pocket it could still go a lot smaller, I’d rather just pack it myself and not have the huge lining in the pocket.
I love the jacket’s looks – the test version was purple with an orange lining, which is pretty cool, or it just comes in black. This is a light, comfy, good value down jacket for cooler conditions.
Craghoppers Kimiko Gilet Verdict
Good value down gilet for cool weather.