101J Denim Jacket

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Japan Okayama JAPANBLUE specially customized 1950s style pink ear edge denim fabric
Use cotton produced in the United States to restore the 101J classic short version
Japanese brand KING special denim sewing thread
Customized GIZEMO vintage copper hardware

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake not only leveled much of the city, but also leveled the historical archives of many local workwear brands. But one of the earliest models, at least, came from Lee. In 1934, they introduced the 101 Slim Jacket as a protective ranch garment to pair with 101 jeans. A year later, they launched the StormRider, which was the 101J's blanket lining and contrasting corduroy.
The collar became the denim standard for the next 30 years.

The most widely recognized trucker jacket must be the Levis Type 3 model, but the 101J has some features that I like better: zigzag stitching, downward pleats, and rounded slanted chest pockets toward the shoulder joint. What's more, the jacket's cut is more tapered, giving it a V-shape. It's a bit shorter than the Type 3, and the shoulder seams are downwards, which I think looks like this
Come more attractive.

The overall feel of the 101J to me is raw and rugged. Although Cowboy Truckers were originally aimed at ranchers, the decline of cowboy ranch clothing in the 1940s meant that companies like Levi's and Lee's had to target these jackets at different markets. To some extent, long-haul drivers are very fond of them because they are cheap and common in more remote areas of the United States. After World War II, companies used this history to market clothing to urban residents. By the 1960s, people who had never driven a truck or hitched a cow began to wear trucker clothes because they associated the style with an enviable, even noble, lifestyle. This is why a piece of ranch clothing is called a trucker jacket.

What are the advantages of denim fabrics produced in Japan?
Japan insists on using old-fashioned looms to work. The texture produced by old-fashioned looms is unmatched by modern machines. The insistence on using old-fashioned machines is a tribute to cowboys, an ancient cultural product. Nowadays, new looms do not use shuttles, but they use wind pressure or water pressure to feed the weft yarn. They cannot use thick yarns. The high-speed loom pulls the warp yarn very hard, so the denim fabric produced is very smooth and flat, and cannot reproduce the individual vitality of the cotton thread itself. Old-fashioned weaving is used. With the weaving machine, the craftsman can manually control the speed of the machine, so loosely woven cotton can more vividly reflect the personality of the cotton thread itself and the concave and convex feel of the cotton thread.

We customized the denim fabric produced in Okayama, Japan, at JAPANBLUE. It uses American cotton yarn, and the weaving process is based on the 50s style. The fabric has a strong texture, 145oz gold thickness, and specially customized pink ears (because the historical sewing method of this jacket means that the pink ears will not be reflected on the clothes).
Shanzhong Fenzhi is in charge of planning, starting from the selection of cotton. First, I found my ideal among the cotton collected from all over the world, and then started weaving. Through highly computerized textile technology, in order to reproduce the retro expression, the uneven shape of the thread we are pursuing is randomly repeated. On the other hand, it is difficult to maintain high quality while naturally expressing unevenness in order to make the thickness of the line strong and weak, close to vintage, as we are pursuing. The values ​​called irregular threads are only required for jeans.

A total of 9 G-type automatic looms "GL-9" (produced in 1980) were produced by Toyota Automatic Loom, which launched the old-fashioned loom TOYOTA GL-9. Located at the former logistics warehouse site opposite the head office, Toyota Auto Loom. Because it is an old model, there are no new replacement parts, so two discarded looms were used as parts. This is a loom that often requires maintenance by skilled craftsmen. The old force loom is indispensable on the basis of expressing the retro style. This means that the shuttle wrapped with weft threads goes back and forth from both ends of the fabric like sewing warp threads, making it Compared with the current mainstream innovative looms, the production efficiency of looms with serviches (lugs) that prevent the fabric from being tangled at both ends is less than 3/1. Because the innovative loom is a high-speed rotating loom, it requires strong thread tension. Although the surface of the woven fabric is uniform and beautiful, it is difficult to express the personality of the fabric. with a flat expression. On the other hand, old-fashioned force looms can be fine-tuned by the techniques of skilled craftsmen such as the method of tensioning the warp tension and the speed of weaving. Based on this, the original texture of the thread, the uneven feel, and the uneven weave create various personalities in the texture (top). The old Japanese power loom was not a machine controlled by a single button, but a tool of a skilled craftsman.