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Our Favourite Chore Coats Will Help Around the House or Anywhere Else You Wear Them
When we talk about time-tested workwear designs, the chore coat has about as much staying power as riveted jeans. It’s a throwback to the time when workwear was almost exclusively worn by working men—long before denim and fashion collided.
With its resurgence as a style essential in the ‘90s and ‘00s (thanks in no small part to the unlikely pairing of Tupac Shakur and fashion photographer Bill Cunningham), designers have returned to the chore coat again and again.
Whether in its iconic French benzoate blue or its later American versions in duck and denim, the chore coat, for both designers and style connoisseurs, is a well that just doesn’t run dry.
We’ve compiled a short list of our absolute favourite chore coats from the likes of Warehouse, Momotaro, SOSO, and Knickerbocker, among others. If you’ve been considering adding a denim or sashiko chore coat to your collection (and you absolutely should), start here.
SOSO Custom Chore Coat (12-33 oz.)
Traditionally, French chore coats were cut short and wide. Like other nineteenth-century workwear pieces, they were originally designed to be worn over “proper” clothes, and they took shape at a time when men wore their pants much higher on the body.
This means that the classic French chore coat and long, lean frames like mine aren’t really a match for each other. They barely reach to my belt, and I can’t access the drop pockets at the waist without chicken-winging my arms.
I talked to the SOSO Brothers about this, and we worked together over multiple iterations to redesign their chore coat. We dropped the pockets down lower on the jacket and made it considerably longer and slimmer.
The jacket looks great in lighter denims, but it’s in a category of its own when executed in heavyweights like the 25 oz. Ghost Selvedge pictured here. Pick a denim weight that works for you and tweak the measurements until the fit is perfect. You’ll be making a friend for life.
If you’re looking for something a little lighter, we can recommend SOSO’s 17 oz. Classic Indigo, 18 oz. Double Indigo Super Slub, or their 13 oz. Indigo Wabash.
Tellason Coverall Jacket (16.5 oz.)
One of the unshakable classics of the American-made selvedge scene, Tellason’s Coverall Jacket is a true-blue original. As immediately recognisable as they come, the jacket features an unmatched array of pockets—seven in total, including the hidden pocket inside the jacket.
Cut and Sewn in San Francisco, the Coverall is made from 16.5 oz. Kuroki Mills selvedge. You can always opt for a lighter version, but Tellason’s heaviest denim has off-the-charts fade potential.
Also available in a wide range of weights and colours.
Heimat Textil Denim Journey Coat (10 oz.)
Best known for their unsinkable knitwear, Germany’s Heimat Textil introduced their Journey Coat to compliment their heavy knits. Cut generously, it slides on effortlessly over sweaters, providing one more sturdy barrier against the cold sea air.
The Journey is the only coat that Heimat makes, but it might be the only one you’ll need. The soft-shouldered raglan sleeve construction helps the jacket follow the line of your shoulders, helping the Journey work just as well with lighter layers as it does with thick knits.
Available in a half-dozen colours in Waxed and Unwaxed Herringbone, Canvas, and Denim, the hardest part of the Journey will be picking just one. See the complete range of colours and fabrics here.
Also available from Franklin & Poe.
An Abridged History of the Chore Coat
The chore coat was essentially perfected in France in the nineteenth century, adopted in America in the early part of the twentieth century, and revived as a style essential in the twenty-first.
In French factories, workers would wear the sky blue version of the coat (usually with trousers to match), while their supervisors usually wore either grey or blue versions.
Made from coarse cotton fabric lightly dyed with an inexpensive benzoate-based dye, French chore coats became so closely associated with the French working class that we still use the term bleu de travail (“work blues”) to describe French workwear in the trademark shade of blue.
In the early twentieth century, the Americans adopted the French working jacket, making it a common feature of American railyards and farms. Dubbed the chore coat, it was produced in massive numbers by popular American brands like Carhartt, Dickies, and Lee.
You’ll find the unabridged history of the chore coat in the Workwear section of our book, The Rebel’s Wardrobe.
Stevenson Prairie Duck Chore Jacket (14 oz.)
Stevenson put an assortment of their favourite early-twentieth-century chore coats in the grinder and flicked the switch. The result is this stunning indigo selvedge canvas chore coat that contains some of the best features from long-forgotten and iconic American workwear.
If details like the black-coated iron buttons don’t catch your eye, the asymmetrical pockets certainly will. The details are striking on their own, but they all work together brilliantly.
The double-brushed flannel lining makes this piece a three-season piece at most, but we don’t count this as a mark against it. For our money, it’s the best cold-weather chore coat on this list.
Also available in a Grey Converted Twill and Brown Duck Canvas.
Carhartt WIP Chore Coat (11.25 oz.)
One of the brands responsible for turning the French working man’s garment into an iconic piece of American workwear, Carhartt has been producing dependable denim versions of the chore coat since 1917 (their iconic duck version of the coat would first appear in 1928).
This indigo chore coat from Carhartt Work in Progress (a European label that licensed the Carhartt name in the ‘90s) is a respectful-yet-contemporary tribute to the workwear classic that helped put Carhartt on the map.
Complete with triple stitching and riveted pockets, this take on the iconic denim chore coat has got real staying power. Also available in Black.
Japan Blue Sashiko Coverall (11 oz.)
If you’ve reached the saturation point with denim jackets, this sashiko chore coat represents a great opportunity to diversity your wardrobe while remaining true to your love of indigo. The unfussy design allows the rope-dyed indigo sashiko fabric to hog the spotlight.
Thanks to the tonal stitching, the pockets are practically invisible from a distance. When combined with the slim fit, the result is one of the cleanest-looking jackets on this list.
A smashing collision of iconic workwear design and Japanese craftsmanship, this jacket just keeps getting better the closer we get to it and the more time we spend in it.
KATO French Blue Vise Sashiko (10 oz.)
With their combination of Japanese design and American manufacturing, Los Angeles-based KATO have been making a deep impression on the American scene since their arrival in 2013.
Best known for their Four-Way Stretch Selvedge, which we review here, they have turned heads with their razor-sharp shirting and outerwear.
With this Sashiko Vise, they’ve come closer to the iconic version of the French chore coat than anybody else on this list. The muted blue tone and the simple, utilitarian design are true to the spirit of the original. Parfait!
Also available in Dark Indigo and Ivory Sashiko, a Light Stripe Indigo Herringbone, and in a Black or Military Green Cordura.
Momotaro Dobby Coverall (~11 oz.)
With its beautiful shawl-collar and double-indigo fabric, this Momotaro Coverall might be too elegant for dirty work. However, if you can resist the urge to baby it, this dobby fabric has massive fade potential.
Dobby fabrics are made with a special loom attachment that can create textured patterns in the fabric. The same attachment is used to create almost all of the so-called sashiko fabrics, like the Kato and Japan Blue ones above.
It’s a good thing to keep in mind. Unless it’s been made by hand, that sashiko piece you’ve been looking at is probably actually a dobby like this one (albeit with a pattern that mimics sashiko handicrafts).
Knickerbocker Factory Denim Chore Coat (12 oz.)
New York’s Knickerbocker has been churning out a solid line-up of timeless classics from their factory in New York since 2013. All of their designs are relevant in the present but rooted in the glory days of American manufacturing. This chore coat is no exception.
A solid member of their roster since the brand’s debut, the Factory Denim Chore Coat is a shining example of the brand’s commitment to American manufacturing and classic designs. With flat-felled chain stitched seams and capacious hip pockets, there’s a lot to love here—both inside and out.
Also available at Franklin & Poe. Besides the indigo version, Knickerbocker has it in Black, Military Olive, or Ecru Herringbone Twill.
De Bonne Facture Denim Macquignon (11.4 oz.)
De Bonne Facture means “well made” in French, and the label more than lives up to this promise. With their coterie of local ateliers in France and Italy working with highly sustainable and ethically produced fabrics, their pieces satisfy even the most exacting style connoisseurs.
Their French-made version of the chore coat, complete with horn buttons, has a decidedly modern slant, but its old-world charms are unmissable.
Longer in the body than most of the chore coats on this list, it will pair brilliantly with either modern or heritage pieces in your wardrobe. They run on the large size, so be sure to check the measurements carefully before ordering.
Also available in a striking Olive and Khaki Patchwork.
Warehouse ‘Forty and Eight’ Coverall (13.5 oz.)
The last member of the fabled Osaka Five, Warehouse quickly became the brand to beat in the world of heritage purists. Their meticulous reproductions of early- and mid-twentieth-century denim pieces have become modern classics in every sense.
The version of the chore coat, based on US Army issue coats from WWI, takes its name, not from a year but, rather, from the boxcars soldiers were transported in when they were in France. Each boxcar was big enough to hold forty men and eight horses.
With a sturdy 13.5 oz. left-hand twill as its backbone and a host of beautiful finishing details, we’re shouting “All aboard!” for this one.
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