3Sixteen Type 3s Denim Jacket – Washed Blue

The Type III is the most copied jacket in the world, and the reason is that the third attempt got it right. The first two were boxy and pocketless; the third brought the body in, put the pointed yokes and the V-shaped seams across the chest, added the two flapped chest pockets, and set the whole thing on a waistband that could be tightened. That drawing has been reissued by everybody, usually without a single change, which is the tell that most reissues are a licence rather than an argument.

3Sixteen has made three changes and each one is a decision. The body is lengthened slightly, which is the difference between a jacket that ends at the ribs and one that ends where a modern wearer wants it. The hand pockets are lined in an 8oz cotton twill rather than a lightweight pocketing, because the pockets are where a denim jacket fails first. And the back yoke is not the original’s. It is the house’s crossed yoke, the same drafting that runs across the shoulders of the Crosscut Flannel, so the panel breaks at opposing angles where every other Type III breaks straight. That is the one place on the jacket where you can tell whose it is without reading a label, and it is on the back, where nobody put it for attention. Cut and sewn in the United States.

Why we selected it

We already sell the denim this jacket is the other half of, and a store that sells one and not the other is asking a customer to go somewhere else to finish the thought. That is the practical reason. The real one is the crossed yoke: it is a piece of drafting nothing about the garment requires, done consistently across a shirt and a jacket for long enough that it has stopped being a flourish and become how the house draws. We took it in two denims because on a jacket like this the cloth is the whole decision, and the two go different ways.

The denim

Twelve ounces, woven for 3Sixteen in Okayama by Kuroki Mills, then sent to a wash house in Los Angeles and put through a multi-stage stonewash. That last step is what you are buying. A stonewash done well takes the stiffness out and pulls the fabric’s own irregularity to the surface, so the jacket arrives with character in it rather than with damage printed on it, and it is soft from the first wearing. The result is a mid blue that reads as an honest, worn blue rather than a pale one, and it sits against raw indigo without competing with it, which matters if the jacket and the jeans are going to be worn together.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent cotton, in a 12oz denim woven in Okayama and stonewashed in Los Angeles. Made in the United States. Crossed back yoke, lengthened body, two flapped chest pockets, and hand pockets lined in 8oz cotton twill.

Fit notes

A trucker cut, so it is close through the body by the standards of a work jacket and cut to be worn over a shirt rather than over a sweater. The waistband tabs adjust the hem. Denim that has been through a heavy wash process fits smaller than the same jacket unwashed, so if you are between sizes, or if you intend to wear a flannel underneath, take the larger. Cotton denim of this weight relaxes across the shoulders and the elbows over the first weeks and then holds where it lands.

Styling

Over the Crosscut Flannel with raw denim, which is a full denim outfit and works because a stonewashed mid blue and a raw indigo are far enough apart to read as two decisions. Over the Pima tee in the shoulder seasons. Under the French Work Jacket in real cold, which is what a trucker was always for.

Care

Wash cold, inside out, and hang to dry. This denim has been washed already, so there is no break-in period to protect and none of the no-wash advice that follows raw denim around applies to it. Heat and friction are what lift indigo, not water, so keep it out of a dryer and it will keep its colour. Our care guidance covers denim, including how selvedge differs, and it has a word on Japanese cloth.

Related pieces

The denim this jacket belongs with is the CS-100x, and for the same cloth rinsed rather than raw, the CS-100xk. In black, the Type 3s in Double Black. The crossed yoke runs across the shoulders of the Crosscut Flannel as well. For outerwear on the same terms, the French Work Jacket and the BDU Jacket. Everything we currently hold from 3Sixteen is listed together.