Dating back 10 years, I remember talking about my dreams with Mr. Tateno, who is the founder of Workers brand while looking at old group pictures of miners dressed all in various different work wears. They look so cool and we were like, "One day, we can take as cool photos as these ones with the clothings we design and make by ourselves." Back then, we were just nobody( I honestly think I still am since I couldn't have achieved anything without the great craftsmen of the past), just young and reckless boys who had ambitions to make the best jeans and work wears. Now that time has passed and TCB is welcoming its 10th anniversary this year in 2022.
For those who don't know much about TCB, please let me explain about my brand. TCB is a denim brand established by myself, Hajime Inoue. I've always dreamed of making my own denim brand ever since I fell in love with the attraction of jeans and work wears. I was born in Japan and was raised in a difficult family situation so I could not really afford to buy any vintage jeans or good clothings back then till I started to work as a newspaper boy after I turned 14 year old. I've always had a strong yearning for vintage jeans and work wears so aside from whether it's good or bad, TCB is a brand for me to collect back my memories and my yearning I had back then. So, all the TCB products we have released so far started from my own sense of what's cool, what I wanted to wear myself back then.
But after 10 years passed since its beginning, I now have my/our crews, who I'd better call comrades, such as Taka, the production manager, Kick, the grandmaster of cutting fabric, Yuko, the sample master, Ryo, the neo hippy, and Sena and TK, the young boys who remind me of my own youth days. One day when I was puzzling over what to release as our 10th anniversary product, our young boys came to me and said, " Hey boss, it's TCB's 10th year, right? We wanna wear a TCB jumpsuit and let's take some cool group photos of us like the ones you see from old American mining companies. And that did remind me of the conversation with Mr. Tateno and I thought that's it!
I feel that the Japanese Amekaji or the JP repro denim industry is one of the most fossilized fashion industries in a sense. People still style like what JP Amekaji magazines have suggested since the 90's and that style still looks cool but I think differently: denim or jeans can be the most personal clothing since they stretch where needed to suit you better and fade as you wear and wash so that we should enjoy it more freely, which should be the best part of jeans and denim. So, the best yet commonplace style on textbooks is of course good but adding your own style to your denim style is more important, which I feel Japanese people are poorer at than others. If I have to say so myself, I feel that our crews are good at showing their own style. And if I made a TCB jumpsuit as our uniform, I wonder how they'd style themselves. Each of our crews does things at their own pace. I mean at lunch time or at breaks, some skate, others read books, some sleep on the floor, the crazy guy, Shiba, always chins up to be more and more muscular and they do strike me as some college boys hanging out in a clubroom. So, maybe it dawned on me that it'd be cool to make a uniform for our crews. 10 years passed and I feel we've formed a great team to make jeans. Sports uniforms, military wear, work wear, etc could bring some power or more unity to people by wearing the same clothing, don't you think?
I don't force them to wear this jumpsuit but I hope I can take a group photo of us wearing the faded uniform in our 20th anniversary year!
After I decided to make a jumpsuit as our 10th anniversary product, I've seen so many vintage pieces to get some ideas. I own several vintage jumpsuits from the 20's with a chin-strap but something didn't feel right, maybe I found it too straightforward and simple for TCB to reproduce so that I couldn't get excited about the commonplace details myself. After much research, I realized again that I do like vintage work wears with asymmetry pocket design, which I feel I say every time TCB releases a chore coat or a barn jacket or the similar kind.
I also looked back at our current product line and noticed that we didn't have our Black Cat series anymore. As you might know, I started TCB brand with me and the production manager, Taka, and Tora, the tabby cat, and Tango, the black cat. I know you feel it's a frivolous thing but for me the black cat was one of TCB founding members, who sadly passed away a year ago.
I felt a bit sad that we didn't have any Black Cat series and happened to give a glance at our Black Cat Jacket. Its unique pocket shape, the raglan sleeve looked fresh and the design seemed very matching with jumpsuits!
But I don't own the vintage Black Bear jumpsuit myself so I borrowed some from Tateno-san, who is the founder of Workers, to check the sewing details such as the seam width, how it's constructed, etc.
I hope this jumpsuit can be your own uniform!
■Fabric
Warp yarn count 7, weft yarn count 12, making it 11.87oz right-hand twill fabric.It's woven by 2by1 and the difference in the yarn count between weft and yarn is pretty big so that so-called waterfall fade/ strong vertical fade can be expected like the fades from vintage overalls/jumpsuits. Made of blended American cotton.
■Regarding the size
It's quite difficult to choose the best size online for jumpsuits.
Speaking of the general sizing of this jumpsuit, they run larger than our jeans. In terms of the waist, these jumpsuits run larger by about 3 inches on the waist than the tag size so that if you choose your usual TCB jeans size for our staple model such as 50's, 20's, S40's, you won't be getting a size that is too small to wear.
Like the fit of a bib overall, we think a bit baggy or loose fit looks much better for jumpsuits so that we recommend the same size or one-size bigger for the baggier silhouette.
Lastly, the very last picture shows Kiriyama-san from Kiriyama works, who might be the household name for regular TCB customers, and his loved dog, Leyla. Leyla is putting a really good face there as if she were saying,
"Hey, TCB pals. please make White Dog Crew suits one day. Maybe on your 20th anniversary."
