Corduroy for Women: The Boy Friend Cord in Vintage Rose
We took the cloth of kings and workers, cut it in our boyfriend fit, and dyed it a rose you will not find anywhere else on earth.
Why corduroy, why now
I made the long case for corduroy in the journal already, so here is the fast one. Poor man’s velvet. Cloth of kings. Worn by professors and rebels and everyone in between. It has ridges, called wales, that catch light and throw shadow, so the fabric is never flat and never boring. It has warmth. It has soul that a smooth cloth simply does not. And it has been quietly waiting for its moment for roughly two hundred years.
Corduroy is having that moment again right now. The problem is that most of what you see is thin, papery, and lifeless. Great corduroy is a completely different animal, and once you feel the difference you cannot unfeel it.
Japanese corduroy, the good stuff
We chased corduroy the exact same way we chase denim: all the way to Japan. Japan is world-renowned for denim, and I feel precisely the same way about the corduroy that comes out of that same obsessive craft culture. We pushed ours for an elevated texture and a subtle color variance, and we hunted until we found a wash we could call our own. Subtle, but unmistakably distinct.
That is the fabric under our entire cord family, including the Old Money green cords the men now reach for by name. For WOMAN, we took that same beautiful cloth somewhere brand new.
The Boy Friend Cord, in Vintage Rose
Our debut women’s corduroy is cut as Boy Friend Cords. Relaxed through the hip and thigh. Easy. Lived-in. The fit women keep quietly stealing off the men’s rack, made yours from the very first day you put them on.
And then, the color. Vintage Rose is a Black Bear Brand original. Not pink. Not beige. A dusty, warm, worn-in rose that looks like it already has a story to tell. We mixed it to be one of a kind, a color you will not find on anyone else’s rack, and on the ridges of washed corduroy it comes alive, deeper in the shadow of the wales and softer on the high points as you move. There is a full story on how Vintage Rose came to be over on the journal, and it is worth the read.
How to wear them
Cream and ivory up top lets the rose glow. A denim shirt or an indigo knit gives you that classic contrast. Boots or a clean white sneaker on the feet. A tucked tee, and honestly the cords do the rest of the work for you. This is a piece that looks considered with almost no effort, which is the best kind of piece to own.
Find the Boy Friend Cords in Vintage Rose in the Women’s Pants section at blackbearbrand.com. It is the first women’s corduroy we have ever made, and we did not rush a single thread of it.
A Way Of Life.
Related reading (link each of these to the matching post)
Corduroy: The Cloth of Kings, Workers, and Everyone Since · blackbearbrand.com/blog-1/mens-corduroy-guide
The Story of Vintage Rose: How We Made a Color · blackbearbrand.com/blog-1/vintage-rose-color-story
Women, Jeans, and Premium Japanese Denim · blackbearbrand.com/blog-1/women-jeans-japanese-denim