I purchased my current denim jacket from a dude who insisted that it was “the last jacket you’ll ever need to buy.” I own it to this day. It also still fits. What it didn’t do for the first two years I owned it is hang across any backs due to sitting across the back of my door because I’d convinced myself it was exclusively a weekend jacket and I basically never get weekends the way that jacket wanted me to. Here’s the thing about denim jackets in 2024 though, if I’m being honest.
It’s not whether or not they’re stylish. They are! Well, technically.
I mean, nobody’s going to card you at the door of some restaurant. The issue is that everyone is still wearing them like they’re a costume to a weekend you aren’t actually having. Barbecue, you didn’t host. Road trip, you never took. The kind of casual that presumes you have anywhere to be that’s remotely relaxed, when most of us are somewhere between a conference call and the subway platform scraping by looking like we know what we’re doing while it’s fourteen degrees outside.
I Did Not Lose Weight, My Jeans Did It Listen
Your Denim Jacket Isn’t Cool, You Just Are
The Jacket Isn’t the Problem, the Way You’re Wearing It Is
For too long I lived by this idea that a denim jacket only worked one way. Here’s where I landed after wearing said jacket approximately nine times over the course of three years: forcing myself to wear it until it felt cool again or I died. Eleven times in January, winner wins. Turns out I like the jacket! What I didn’t like was only wearing it in ways that made me feel like I was living the lifestyle I wasn’t actually living. The style that stuck, what actually turned it from decorative hanger pasta to something I actively reach for, was throwing all that junk out. Stop pretending denim on denim makes you the Weekend Guy Sean uses in his Carhartt catalog ads and ask yourself if it passes the same test you’d run a blazer through. Blazer questions.
Does it work worn over your actual week. For me, it does! Layered under a wool coat on a nineteen degree morning it added just enough body without turning me into a giant marshmallow of death and survived the murder sauna that is my commute involving one dead escalator and an exceptionally undignified sprint for the 6 train thanks probably to how well it holds it shape. Worn over a plain crewneck for a day thats half spreadsheet hell and half a friend’s gallery opening (also NYC heaven), it served both spaces equally without me having to think about it twice which actually had the senior analyst who sits behind me at work comment unprompted, “man, you kind of look like you’re wearing two different outfits today.” Thank you, that’s exactly what I did.
The one place where it doesn’t work and no denim jacket salesperson wants to tell you this, is with fit. I’ve now owned four denim jackets since that first challenger and only wear one. THREE MORE THAN ANYONE SHOULD OWN JUST BUYING FOR ONE GARMENT DOING ONE JOB, and the difference between that one and the others is about an inch of room you give yourself in the shoulders. Too big and boxy and you feel like you’re going to a job interview at your local skateboard shop circa 2004. Too slim and it’ll tighten whenever you move a little too much and a denim jacket that fights you while you’re trying to commute is not a jacket, it’s a fancy costume with a zipper on it.
Hell, even the color debate gets blown way out of proportion. Raw denim vs washed denim like that’s some tough style choice you have to make. Newsflash: it isn’t, it’s a laundry decision. Bought a raw pair once, wore them twice before they decided to bleed all their dye onto my white shirt cuff so violently I thought I sliced my hand open. Tuesday I’ll never get back, shirt I definitely won’t. The boring ol’ worn indigo you think everyone has spent a million dollars aestheticallygasmming over on Instagram has never once done that and at this point I no longer view “boring” as an insult when it comes to clothing touching my skin for 8+ hours a day.
Where I Think Denim Jackets Actually Go From Here
Look, is a denim jacket still something everyone should own in 2024? Yes. Is it for the reason you read into almost every article about denim jackets? Nope. I think it’s telling that the “denim jackets match with everything” rebuttal is the first thing everyone raises when you challenge how often they’re worn. That’s not a strength, that’s brochure science. The real reason why you should own one, and I think something far cooler, is that it’s one of the rarest pieces of outerwear that does anything helpful. Structurally supports your shoulders? Check. Give you some shape? Check. Keep you slightly wind and spill resistant? Check.
And yet still universally reads as “I didn’t try too hard.’”
That feels harder to find than people make it out to be. Too many things that look effortless fall at the first sign of wear and too many things that can survive my New York City schedule feel like I’m headed into shift instead of a Tuesday. I can see denim jackets rolling away from a looselogazine suggestion of “every man needs one” and into fewer people owning one at all, but the people who do own one owndingonegood one instead of the three backups I’ve hoarded against the chance I will. someday. need another. They’re noticing that jackets that are too thin, too light, too “photogenic” and not actually something you could put clothes on are swallow marketed as denim jackets when they’re nothing more than denim jacket shaped objects.
With how invested I was in owning enough denim jackets to create backups, I hate to say I was right, but yeah I think I was. They’re just not going to be something everyone and their mom owns cuz some fashion blog told them to 2018 style. They’re going to be smarter about what they actually need it to do. That’s not a loss, that’s just the difference between owning shit and using stuff. Three jackets and a ruined shirt cuff ruined later, folks.
Ade works in finance in the City and treats his wardrobe like a portfolio, which he admits is a slightly mad way to think about a blazer. He writes about office clothes that survive twelve hour days, back to back meetings and the odd video call.
