3Sixteen French Work Jacket

The bleu de travail is the most quietly influential garment in European clothing. French workers wore it for most of the twentieth century, three patch pockets and a straight body in indigo cotton, and it was never designed to be admired. It has since been copied by everyone, which is what happens to a pattern that was correct the first time.

The interesting decision here is the cloth. Moleskin is a heavily wefted cotton with a dense, close surface, brushed on one side and firm on the other, and it sits somewhere between a canvas and a suede in the hand. It is dry rather than soft when new. Weight and density are what make it worth owning, because a moleskin jacket does not drape in its first month and then, gradually, does. Dyeing it with indigo rather than a piece-dyed navy is the second decision, and it is the one that determines the next ten years: indigo sits on the surface of the yarn and leaves it slowly, so the jacket lightens at the elbows, the cuffs, the pocket mouths, and the fold of the collar, and does not lighten anywhere it is not touched. In five years it will be a map of how you use it.

Why we selected it

The chore jacket is the most over-produced garment in men’s clothing, and we looked at a great many before we took one. This is the one where the cloth settled it, and the only one where we could tell customers honestly that the jacket would be better in year three. It is also the piece in this line that does the most work in a Santa Fe wardrobe: a jacket that goes over a shirt in April, a sweater in October, and under a coat in January.

3Sixteen builds most of its outerwear from workwear and military originals, and the French Work Jacket is the European end of that.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent cotton, indigo-dyed Japanese moleskin, made in India. Three patch pockets, rounded collar, button-through front.

Fit notes

Cut as a chore jacket, so straight through the body with room for a layer and a shoulder that is not tailored. Moleskin is firm on arrival and will feel stiffer than the finished garment ever will again; give it a month. It goes over a shirt easily and over a mid-weight crewneck without strain. If you want it to take a heavy sweater, size up, because moleskin does not stretch to accommodate one.

Styling

Over the Club Collar Shirt with raw denim, which is indigo on indigo on indigo and works because the three shades are far enough apart. Over a flannel in autumn. Under a topcoat in winter. It is not a jacket that needs help.

Care

Wash it as little as you can stand, because every wash costs you indigo and the fading you want is the kind that comes from wear. When you do, cold water, inside out, alone, and hang to dry away from heat. It will transfer colour onto pale shirts and light upholstery for the first season; that is indigo behaving normally rather than a defect. Our general care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

In the same outerwear register, the BDU Jacket and the Liner Jacket, and for something with a lapel on it, the Work Blazer. It is worn over the CS-100x and the Crosscut Flannel more than over anything else. Everything we currently hold from 3Sixteen is listed together.