On Repeat: The Blanket Lined Denim Jacket
A winter update to a uniform favorite.
Earlier this week, I talked about how repeatedly wearing the things you love is how you develop signature style. Signature style is something that happens over time by continually choosing the things you love. This brings me to one of my favorite looks I go back to again and again: denim on denim.
The greatest part of making denim on denim a go to uniform is the unlimited opportunity to play and reinvent. There are endless washes, endless fits, and styles to experiment with. It’s a uniform that never gets tired.
This winter in California, the jacket I keep reaching for is my vintage denim blanket-lined, full zip jacket. It’s become my default outer layer. I love it because it is the most perfect solution of how to wear my go to uniform on colder days. It looks as good layered with a sweater (like my new favorite navy cashmere mock neck) as it does with a good long sleeve tee for not so cold days.
Like all great design, the details of this jacket- from the stripe wool lining and the fine wale indigo corduroy collar- were all born out of utility. The story goes, at least the way it’s been told, that ranchers in the 1940s needed a way to get through Western winters when materials were scarce and the war made everything harder to come by. So they improvised. They took the saddle blankets they already had and stitched them into the linings of their denim jackets for warmth. It was practical, resourceful, born entirely out of necessity.
Eventually denim makers caught on and started to produce blanket lined jackets themselves. Striped wool blanket linings inspired by the same striped saddle blankets the ranchers were sewing in themselves became the standard. Corduroy collars were added to prevent chafing at the neck after long days of wear. They built the jacket with a roomier fit for sweaters and layers. The Lee Storm Rider Jacket, one of the first blanket lined jackets of it’s time, was a smash hit by the early 1950s when the style moved off the ranch and into the closets of Hollywood elite.
Today, I’m sharing an edit of my favorite vintage blanket lined denim jackets on the web. Before we begin there a few things I’d suggest keeping an eye out for if you go out looking on your own:
The more washed, the better. A good wash with real wear patterns and whisker patterns is impossible to replicate (well) new and is the real beauty of buying on of these vintage.
A little distressing on the cuff or the collar is a bonus not a character flaw.
For women, size up one from your typical women’s size (at minimum). If you can carry oversized pieces well- do not hesitate going up two sizes. I’m a women’s size small wearing a men’s size large.
Let’s get into it!
The Edit
This edit includes a variety of blanket lined styles, all in beautiful washes in a range of sizes.
No 1. Vintage Denim Blanket Lined Jacket, Sz M, $318
This is the closest to my vintage jacket which is actually a more difficult style to find which is why it is more expensive. Number 7 in the edit is only $120- the best deal I could find and in a small size!
The rest of this edit is for paid subscribers. Most pieces are under $100, everything is under $150.
