When TCB starts a new project, a new meeting with a great vintage piece is always the trigger for us. Something I saw through show windows that I couldn't afford or some special vintage jeans that movie stars wore, etc. So, basically I look back at the clothings of my longing and I reproduce the items that I've longed for: That's basically what TCB brand is.
Another case is like the Viktor's Voice Project we did last year. We borrow some special vintage piece that is super rare and that is never sold even at the most prominent vintage shops around the world, from huge denim collectors like Mr. Viktor Fredback.
Please let me be 100% clear and honest about this. We've started the product development this time without owning the very vintage chore jacket.
What we had was the vintage heart-shaped buttons and the bib overall of 20's with the famous Master Cloth tag. The reason is simple: I've been dying to make this chore jacket for a long time and I could not wait till the good meeting.
■Fabric
We've referred to a vintage Carhartte chore jacket from the 20's for the tag design. Carhartte vintage clothings are very popular in Japan as well as in the rest of the world and the famous heart-shaped tag was used on their garments between the 30's ~ the 40's but this Master Cloth one is even rarer, which was used only till the late 20's.
As for the fabric, the tension of the weaving is set relatively loose and we've chosen yarn count: 7 for the warps and 1 for the wefts. The difference of the yarn count between the warps and the wefts is a bit unusual for the denim weaving but speaking of this fabric at the microscopic level, it looks that the warps sit over the wefts on the surface of the fabric, which will eventually leads to wild, rainfall fades and the difference of the yarn count creates more clear looking twill lines for a 2*1 fabric.
It's dyed by synthetic indigo without any adulteration. A bit of derailment here but have you ever seen any denim, wabash, or whatever indigo-dyed vintage clothing faded in to some greenish color? That's brought by cheap synthetic indigo with some filler sort of ingredient mixed in. Our fabric this time is dyed by 100% synthetic indigo so it won't fade to the greenish color, which I know some like. and I also like it but as far as I study the vintage Carhartte, the greenish color is definitely not the characteristic of their fabric.
Compared to the fabric of XX jeans, the indigo tinge is more blueish. Before the 50's, the indigo color on denim was more blueish maybe because people back then wanted to lessen the cost of dyeing by lessening the number of indigo dyeing process. ( It's needed to do the dyeing process over and over again in order to achieve the dark indigo color. Put threads in the indigo pool→squeeze the threads and wait for some oxidation→do it again and again.)
*To those who have other TCB chore jackets,
The fabric is softer than the one of Tabby's Jacket or of Black Cat Jacket but the blue tinge is very similar to Tabby's. The twill line is much more visible on the fabric of this new chore jacket so the more vertical, so-called rainfall fade is expected.
What did we do to decide the pattern and the silhouette this time?
We own 2 Carhartte Vintage jackets from the 40's ~ 50's. Based on those jackets, we've studied the cut, the sewing to make our jacket match the 20's feel.
To be more precise about the 20's feel, we've adopted the following details on our new chore jacket
:Square collar with a joint at the center.
:Adjustable change buttons with eyelets on the cuffs and the collar.
:Set-in sleeve
:low sleeve caps often seen on the garments of 20's or before
Not many jackets of today have the collar with a center joint because that looks a bit messy but only the plausible reason that I could come up with is to decrease the amount of yardage.
In the future, I might be able to get the vintage Carhartte Jacket from the 20's and there might be some difference here and there from my imaginary reproduction but it's like the opposite version of Sci-fi movie picturing the future life. We look back at the past and depicting each detail of the past onto our garment by studying the heritage of 100 years ago. When I could go on a time machine, I'd love to visit the Carhartte factory back then. I wonder if any other sewing workers around me would notice that some details on my chore jacket are different from the rest!
■Size
The size chart is in the picture section. The measurements are taken from the actual one-washed garments. We receive so many questions asking about the actual measurements but the size chart shows it. It's also true that there could be a slight difference in the measurements from the actual measurements but as long as each size is made from the same master pattern, those difference will be eased off as you wear and a garment gets worn in.
■Size guidance
Hajime 172cm 110kg (Pic No:1~4) wearing size 44. He can only wear a thin inner like T-shirt.
Ryo 180cm 90kg (Pic No:5~7) wearing size 42. He can wear 42 over a T-shirt, a thick hoodie, a lined denim jacket.
■Disclaimer
All the buttons used on this Carhartte Chore Coat are change buttons so that we recommend you take them off before washing. In case of breakage or loss of the buttons, we don't offer the buttons for free of charge.
