A Jacket or Jeans as a Gift, and the Size Question
A Jacket or Jeans as a Gift, and the Size Question
The gift is easy to choose. The number on the tag is the part to get right.
Why clothes make the gift
People ask me if clothing is too personal to give. I think it is the most personal gift there is. A jacket goes everywhere he goes. A good pair of jeans becomes his over the years. Ten winters from now he will still know who gave it to him.
The only hard part is the size. Here is what I tell friends who ask.
Jackets are the easier gift
A jacket has more room for error than a pair of jeans. Chest and shoulders decide it.
The surest guide is a jacket he already wears and likes. Laid flat, it gives the measurement across the chest from armpit to armpit. Every Black Bear Brand product page has a measurement and size guide with the photographs.
I am the one wearing the jackets in most of those photographs. I am about five foot eleven and 200 pounds, and a Large is the size I wear in Black Bear Brand jackets these days. You can see it on the Black Bear Brand Peacoat and the WINTER Washed Denim Chore Coat. Each page says what size I have on.
With his jacket, the size guide and those photographs side by side, the choice is usually clear.
Jeans come long on purpose
The Double Front Jeans and the ONE Jeans are made at about 37 inches in every size, and that length is on purpose. How a pant sits is personal style. I roll mine. Plenty of men have theirs hemmed.
So with those jeans, the length is the one number you do not need to guess. The waist is the number that matters. I wear a 34 waist in Black Bear Brand jeans, and that is the size in the photographs. Both are 13.5oz shuttle loom selvedge in 100% cotton, made in Japan, and they leave the finishing touch to him. If he has a pair hemmed, the right time is after the jeans have been washed the way he plans to keep washing them, by a tailor in person.
When the gift card is the gift
Some pieces are made to order. Every Black Bear Brand horsehide jacket is cut and sewn in the USA in the size the customer chooses, during a preorder window that opens three or four times a year.
For those, and for the man whose size is a mystery, the Black Bear Brand Gift Card is the honest gift. It is digital and comes in amounts from $25 to $1,000. He chooses the size when the time comes.
Three jackets I would give
A jacket is a fine first gift. The WINTER Washed Denim Chore Coat, the GOLDEN Harris Tweed Chore Coat and the Hunter Green Wax Canvas Jacket are three I would give.
A Way Of Life.
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