The Peacoat, and a Green I Made
The Peacoat, and a Green I Made
A vintage coat worn for a decade, refined until there was nothing left to argue with.
Some designs arrive fast. This one took years, and it started with a coat I already owned.
The Coat I Wore First
I had a vintage peacoat and I wore it for over a decade. It went everywhere with me. When I finally sat down to make ours, that coat was the starting point, and the work was refinement rather than invention. Zero compromising.
It was only possible in the hands of our craftsmen in Japan.
Why the Shape Endures
The peacoat is one of the great pieces of design, and almost every line on it is doing a job.
It is short so it does not catch. It is double breasted so the front is two layers of heavy wool across the chest, which is where wind hits. The collar stands up and closes across the throat. The wool is dense enough that it stops air outright.
Change any of that and it stops being a peacoat. Which is why nobody has changed it in a very long time.
The Cloth
Ours is 14.7oz wool produced specially for Black Bear Brand in the Aichi-Ichinomiya area of Japan, a region famous for beautiful wool.
The black is lined throughout in blue Cupra, made special for us in Japan. Cupra is a regenerated cellulose fiber with a slippery, cool hand, and it is why a heavy coat goes on over a jacket without fighting you.
There are two Black Bear Brand concealed pockets inside. The anchor buttons are special and made in Japan. There is a Black Bear Brand COMMANDER tag at the inner neck. One hundred percent made in Japan by our world class craftsmen.
Hunter Green
The new one is hunter green, and the color is mine. I created it with the mill. It is 14.7oz custom hunter green wool from the same area of Japan, lined in black Cupra made special for us there.
Green is the hardest color in the history of cloth to get right, which is a story worth telling on its own some time. A deep green wool coat reads rich in a way black never quite does, because there is more happening in it. In low light it reads almost black. In sun it opens up.
October 22
The hunter green peacoat releases on October 22, and the black peacoat comes back the same day.
The hunter green will also be at the Tokyo pop up. If you are in Japan at the start of October, that is the first chance to see it.
A Way Of Life.
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Made in Seattle, Made in Japan