We love TCB repros and admire the hard work behind each piece they create. This time, the guys at TCB have reproduced to perfection the iconic Carhartt Chore Coat from the 1920s, maintaining all the original killer details such as the angular watch pocket, the rarely seen early Carhartt Master Cloth label and the heart shaped "change" or removable buttons with patent date of 1918. The original Carhartt Chore Coat is seen inside the Carhartt Universal Time Book from 1935.
TCB started the product development this time without owning the very vintage chore jacket. Therefore, it is almost impossible to find one, and the very few units that have appeared on the second-hand market have been priced around USD5000.
Anyway, TCB had the vintage heart-shaped buttons and the bib Carhartt overall of the '20s with the famous Master Cloth tag. The famous heart-shaped tag was used on Carhartt garments between the '30s and the '40s, but this Master Cloth one is even rarer, used only until the late 20s.
As for the fabric, the tension of the weaving is set relatively loose and TCB has chosen yarn count: 7 for the warps and 1 for the wefts. The difference in the yarn count between the warps and the wefts is a bit unusual for denim weaving. Still, speaking of this fabric at the microscopic level, it looks that the warps sit over the wefts on the fabric's surface, which will eventually lead to wild, rainfall fades, and the difference in the yarn count creates more clear-looking twill lines for a 2x1 fabric.
It's dyed with 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 into some greenish colour? That's brought by cheap synthetic indigo with some filler sort of ingredient mixed in. TCB fabric, this time, is dyed with 100% synthetic indigo, so it won't fade to the greenish colour.
Compared to the fabric of XX jeans, the indigo tinge is more blueish. Before the 50s, the indigo colour on denim was more blueish, maybe because people then wanted to lessen the cost of dyeing by lessening the number of indigo dyeing processes. ( It's needed to do the dyeing process over and over again to achieve the dark indigo colour. Put threads in the indigo pool→squeeze the threads and wait for some oxidation→do it again and again.
What did TCB do to decide the pattern and the silhouette this time? TCB own 2 Carhartt Vintage jackets from the '40s ~ 50's. Based on those jackets, they studied the cut, and the sewing to make their coat match the 20's feel. To be more precise, TCB adopted the following details on this new chore jacket:
- Square collar with a joint at the centre.
- Adjustable change buttons with eyelets on the cuffs and the collar.
- Set-in sleeve
- low sleeve caps (often seen on the garments of '20s and before)
Not many jackets today have the collar with a centre joint because that looks a bit messy, but only the plausible reason TCB could come up with is to decrease the amount of yardage.
In the future, Hajime Inoue might be able to get the vintage Carhartt Jacket from the 20s, and there might be some difference here and there from his imaginary reproduction. Still, it's like the opposite version of a Sci-fi movie picturing the future life. TCB looked back at the past and depicting each detail of the past onto their garment by studying the heritage of 100 years ago. Hajime Inoue (TCB owner): "When I could go on a time machine, I'd love to visit the Carhartt 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!"
All the buttons used on this Cathartt Chore Coat are "change" or removable, so we recommend you take them off before washing.
The fabric is softer than any other TCB Chore coat, but the blue tinge resembles the 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.
Sizing Notes
This jacket runs a bit big compared to other iconic TCB jackets such as the 50s, the 30s or 40s, so we recommend going down one size from your usual Japanese denim jacket size.
In the photos, Eduardo is wearing a 38. He always uses a 40 in TCB and also in other Japanese brands. With these, size 38 is a perfect fit for him, a bit roomy to allow layers (the original jacket was designed with that purpose). Anyway, as ever and before anything else, we recommend that you take a look at the size chart. We carefully measure each size in the shop and never publish pre-production size charts, so our measurements are always very precise.
TCB (which stands for Two Cats Brand or Taking Care of Business) is a Japanese label founded in Kojima by Hajime Inoue in 2012. It specializes in reproductions of the classic American denim icons produced from the 1920s to the 1960s. Among his garments, we can find some of the highest-quality reproductions we have ever seen, made in his own workshop on sewing machines more than a hundred years.
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