Five Centuries of the Jacket
Five Centuries of the Jacket
A short word for a short coat, and the piece that defines a fall.
A small word
The word jacket came into English in the middle of the 1400s. It came from the Old French jaquet, a short coat with sleeves. Jaquet was the little form of jaque, a tunic. Some say jaque came from Jacques, the common name the French gave a peasant. Others say it came from the jaque de mailles, a coat of mail. Either way the jacket started out as the short coat of people who moved.
More than five centuries later the jacket still decides the season. This fall one of London's great department stores named the leather jacket the hero piece of autumn and winter. I agree with them about the leather. I would say the same about the wool, the tweed and the denim.
Horsehide
My leather jackets are cut from horsehide tanned at the Horween tannery in Chicago and made in the United States. Some are western jackets. The Rough-RIDER is a horsehide over-shirt worn roughout, with the finished side in. The Northern Dream carries long curl lambskin inside.
Harris Tweed
Every year three new Harris Tweeds are woven by hand for Black Bear Brand in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, and the jackets are made in Seattle. This fall the Midnight Glen tartan is a western jacket and the Wildflower tartan is a chore coat. The linings are my diamond quilting, made in Japan.
Wool
The peacoat is 14.7oz wool made for Black Bear Brand in the Aichi-Ichinomiya area of Japan. It comes in black, lined in blue Cupra, and in a hunter green I created with the mill, lined in black Cupra. It is made in Japan from the wool to the last button.
Denim
The ONE Jean Jacket is 14oz rope dyed selvedge denim, cut and sewn in Okayama. The ONE in the name means its one pocket. It is sewn with bright gold thread.
Thread
The ART Edition varsity jacket carries more than twenty hours of needle and thread. The chain stitching alone takes four days. It is made in Japan, end to end, with white cowhide sleeves and a wool body.
Each one for its own reason
Each of these jackets began with a material worth the trouble. A hide, a tweed, a wool or a denim that deserved a jacket of its own. None of them replaces another. Each one is its own kind of fall.
A Way Of Life.
Shop the Story
The SADDLE Western Pocket Horween Horsehide Jacket
The Midnight Glen Tartan Harris Tweed Western Jacket
The ART Edition Chain Stitched Varsity Jacket
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