Long John x Blue Blanket Collaboration Denim Jacket
Extremely proud to announce the new Long John collaboration with long-time denim friend Antonio di Battista from Italy (more about Antonio here). Antonio is a very respected denim designer for 30+ years and also the founder of the Blue Blanket brand.
The outcome of the Long John x Blue Blanket collab is a special limited-edition denim jacket that is based on a vintage jacket from my denim archive. The jacket is made in a small run, 100% crafted in Italy. The country that is known for its impressive denim history.
Antonio di Battista, founder of Blue Blanket, wearing the Long John x Blue Blanket collab jacket.
Two Denim Friends Over 10+ Years
With the release of the Long John x Blue Blanket collab jacket we celebrate our friendship, mutual passion for denim, and vintage denim in particular. The friendship with Antonio di Battista goes back 10+ years when we met each other for the very first time during one of the Bread & Butter trade shows in Berlin, Germany. Since then we always stayed in contact, shared our passion for denim and highlighted the exciting updates about Antonio’s Blue Blanket journey.
With Blue Blanket, Antonio started to express his vision of how to create the best pairs of jeans and denim-related styles ever. The outcome are collections that are not based on trends, but on craftsmanship and above all timeless and quality-made products. Iconic menswear styles inspired on his impressive denim archive, which contains more than 2.000+ rare and collectible pieces.
The Collaboration Jacket
As we both have a weak on historical and vintage denim styles, Antonio and I came together last year with the idea to develop a special denim style. The starting point for the collaboration was a vintage 1960s denim jacket with an authentic Western embroidery from my archive. A jacket that I found many years ago on one of my vintage denim hunting trips.
The original vintage jacket, you can see more of the jacket here.
Soon we decided that this denim jacket must be the base for our collaboration as we both always loved the Western lifestyle. Next to that, the Western lifestyle is also deeply rooted in the history of denim.
The Special Features Of The Collaboration
The design of the Long John x Blue Blanket collab jacket is based on one of the most iconic denim jacket styles ever produced. We tweaked the original jacket to modern standards, without losing the original look and feel. The design shows two slightly slanted breast pockets with flap closure, zig-zag reinforcement stitching, and stitched pleats on the front.
The jacket is made with a beautiful 12,5oz left-hand unwashed (rigid) denim fabric. This fabric was bought by Antonio many years ago in the South of Italy, it’s a deadstock denim fabric from the 1980s. The fabric has a deep indigo tone that will age nicely with time and wear.
The collab jacket is entirely stitched with classic tobacco-colored thread. An unbeatable thread color that is used for most denim styles.
For the buttons, we picked the classic laurel leaf buttons. These kinds of buttons were used during World War 2 as a symbol of peace. This was very common during World War 2 as all suppliers were forced to use standard hardware to conform to rules set by the War Production Board for the conservation of raw materials. The laurel leaves on the buttons were added on the buttons as a symbol of peace, protection, and victory. Laurel leaves were also commonly put under pillows at night to gain inspiration through dreams. On top of that, these kind of buttons can be seen on many vintage denim workwear styles too, branded and unbranded styles. All these storytelling references decided us to use these buttons on our collab jacket.
On the back of the jacket, there’re original black cat-eye buttons on the adjusters, and a woven Blue Blanket brand label.
The Authentic Chainstitched Embroidery
The Long John x Blue Blanket collab jacket is decorated with the authentic chain-stitch embroidery technique. A technique that is slowly disappearing due to the time-consuming process. For the jacket, we collaborated with the chainstitch masters of DM6 from Abruzzo, Italy. The company that’s already in business since 1987.
The embroidery on the jacket is inspired by the original vintage jacket which has worn by students from the University of Missouri in Columbia on their yearly event. The university brought the agricultural students, also known as the ‘Aggies‘ together in social fun events. These original jackets are a sort of class jackets for the students.
On the front of the collab jacket are two chain stitch embroideries, each above the chest pockets. On the right pocket shows ‘BB’, which refers to Blue Blanket, while on the left ‘L.John’ is embroidered as an abbreviation to Long John. The embroidery is made in yellow, a reference to embroideries that can be seen many often on vintage denim jackets.
The back of the jacket shows a huge ecru horseshoe embroidery written ‘1st’ on the top in yellow, as this jacket is our first collaboration style. The horseshoe is a symbol of good luck. Some people also hang them in their homes as protection and to welcome good fortune. Sailors use them on their ships too, for luck while sailing at sea, and to protect them from evil spirits. Some say that you need to use a horseshoe upside down, otherwise, the luck will fall out, but better bad luck than no luck, right?!
At the end of the horseshoe there’s the year we decided to join forces, so ‘2022’, also in yellow. And, in the middle, we celebrate our denim friendship with the yellow ‘Blue Blanket for Long John’ embroidery.
Features of the denim collab jacket
- Western denim jacket design
- Made of 12,5oz deadstock rigid left-hand Italian woven denim fabric
- Hanging-loop
- Laurel leaf buttons
- Collaboration Jacron patch with both Blue Blanket as Long John logo
- Original black cat-eye buttons
- Blue Blanket woven brand label
- Authentic chain-stitch design on the front and back
- Hanging-loop
- Made in Italy
A Limited Run Made In Italy
The Long John x Blue Blanket collaboration denim jacket is made in a very limited run of 50 pieces only in Italy. The jacket is available in my webshop section here and via selected Blue Blanket denim retailers worldwide.
Grab your chance to get your hands on this very special Long John x Blue Blanket denim jacket now!
