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︎ zazen bozo ︎


︎︎︎ January 3rd, 2024 ︎︎︎

Jean Jackets Part 2:


Electric boogaloo


Between 1905 and 1962 Levis designed three denim jackets: the Type I, II, and III and nobody has designed any more jackets after that. They’re the only sort of jackets you need, especially the type III. That’s the one that Nicolas Cage wears in National Treasure, it’s also the one Diane Kruger wears in National Treasure. You’ve seen it before, since it hit the scene in 1962 it has been the jacket, it’s recognizable as heck, almost too much so.  

A bit longer in the body than its predecessor, with those vees from the pockets, it’s a jacket anyone who has watched American movies can picture with their eyes shut. I don’t really like it, it’s too long, too hippyish, too familiar. My brother’s Buzz Rickson WWII model, basically a type I jacket is cooler:

Those pleats down the center are called “knife pleats,” they’re there so you can cut them open if you gain a few pounds, plus the vertical lines are slimming and they look rad. The type I has a single breast pocket, generally at the center of the chest panel, and it rides high and boxy like a good cowboy jacket ought to.

It’s a bit old school for my taste, a bit short, and I wanted “hand warmers,” which is what slash pockets are called when it comes to denim jackets, apparently. 

So I’ve narrowed my taste down a bit, I don’t want a type III, and I want hand warmers, that leaves about 10,000 models of modified type I and II jackets to choose from. 


I think I looked at every single type I and II jacket available on the internet. I was comparing jackets with such nuanced differences in construction and fabric that most normal people could not tell the difference in a police lineup. 
I found Type IIs with triple knife-pleats but no hand warmers,
type Is with excellent pocket placements but 21oz denim too heavy to wear any time but February.

I even found a nice type III with knife-pleats that was utterly ruined by red stitching and weirdly large and pointy lapels! ︎


ew

I stumbled upon another fantastic type II chore coat that’d be charming if it weren’t a full 6” too long. Almost a driving coat,
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Kind of overwrought, too. Like, what are all those pockets for? I think the’re advertised as newspaper pockets? It may be a vintage thing but damn, that’s just silly. I’m not even sure I know what a newspaper is?

After a bit of research I’ve established a few requirements:
  • Type I/II,
  • vintage-style short,
  • with handwarmers,
  • between 10-15 oz. denim,
  • unsanforized,
  • ideally Japanese,
  • ideally slubby.

There are a lot of terms there that are not common.
 
Sanforization is a process of denim treatment that prevents the fabric from shrinking unevenly. It makes it easier to work with and a bit more uniform. people who like fancy Japanese denim do not like this uniformity, they prefer wacky fades and funk, which I’ll get to later. I’m far from a fanatic, but it’s what the cool guys are after and I want to be a cool guy. Mostly if a company produces unsanforized garments it means they’re on to something interesting, regardless of what that term even means.

The Japanese make the best denim in the world because they’re ruthless fanatics. It is a beautiful planetary alignment where they’ve fallen in love with Americana in a way that even Americans haven’t, so they have more vintage low-tension looms than we do, and they have a millenia old indigo tradition.

Those things combined means:
The best denim in the world is made in Japan, it transcends quality and hardwearingness and lands squarely in the realm of art.

Which brings me to Slubbiness and Neppiness. Slub is the looseness of the weave. By running machines with ultra-low tension, a thing that requires immense skill and attention, gaps in the weave can be seen. Done correctly it can take on strange patterns like rain or fog or brushstrokes. 



While Iron Heart is not known for their Slubby denim this type III is a pretty prime example. 21 oz. This thing is no joke.


Nepp is the misalignment of cotton threads wherein they pop out of the weave, leaving little imperfections across the surface.


It’s not uncommon for the uninitiated to mistake it for pilling and try to pick it off with their fingernails, the knaves, the charlatans, the fools! 

What’s strangest of all about this whole scene is that the jackets as they have been pictured thus far on this post are less than half the story. The entire purpose of all this rigamarole is so that they might age and wear beautifully. There are even competitions to that end. 

Here’s a not neppy Iron Heart Type III after a year or so of hard wear:

And here’s that driving coat type thing with the newspaper pocket:



I discussed yesterday the fascinating arrival of vintage fashion. The desire towards “vintage” without having to do the work. The world of “Raw Denim” fetishizes the work and engineers incredibly expensive garments for the express purpose of showing off that work. I do wonder how our forefathers would look at this. 

It’s much ado about a thing they might not have liked all that much. These jackets look old, used up, close to replacement, which is an expense even when you’re not talking about ultra-cool Japanese imports for the soft-handed nerds amongst us. Though really, these jackets are built with far stronger machines and far finer denim than was ever produced in the early 20th century. The wear-in just makes them comfortable, not weak.

Folks must have prized their jackets and their jeans, these are things that behold their labour and their dedication, things they’ve lived with and in. There’s a beauty to that that’s undeniable, it transcends economics, I think. That’s why vintage is so desirable in the first place, this is just another look at the same thing. 


Anyways, I think I’ve settled on a jacket.︎
A nice type II with hand warmers made from a not too crazy fabric from Tenuki. It’s 19 oz. so it’s a little heavy but the breast pockets aren’t too silly, it has nice copper buttons and just enough funk. The description on the website’s written in bad English, so I take that as a good sign.

This all started because I wanted a jacket I could wear working that would get better with age. And while I think it’s a bit ridiculous to think this much about clothes I also think it’s fun, and mostly an opportunity. 

I’m gonna buy a jacket, and while I could pop down to the thrift store or Lennys, this amount of story is something I can really feel when I wear it, and that counts for a lot, I think. At least it does to me. 





Bozo