I’m very happy with the coat, but  Melbourne weather will be too warm to wear this until April.

Recently got this USN Denim Jacket from Real McCoys.  10 oz denim.

https://www.realmccoys.co.jp/catalog/products/detail.php?product_id=2269&pg=3

It was no-wash, and shrank a lot.  You can see a lot of shrinkage in the chain-stitching across the top of the pocket in the below pic.

Even after the wash the sleeves were very long…  so I decided to do a home-style stitching.

A blanket stitch using my leather stitching tools and linen thread.

The coat buttons are listed as iron.  They are a flat black, but I’m expecting that they will burnish over time to something more like the Buzz Rickson’s version of this jacket.

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/hinoya/m13157/

Here are some of my collection.

Studio D’Artisan goldfish kingyo.  This shirt is cotton and has a nice pattern in the weave which you can’t see in the picture.

Polo Sailboat design.  This shirt is a nice nautical piece.  It’s 80% silk, with 20% cotton.  It’s a great mix so that you don’t get the flimsy/shine of the silk.

Toyo Sun Surf Sweetfish design.  This shirt is rayon crepe.  There’s an interesting property of rayon crepe and the silk materials…  when the shirt gets wet the fabric actually gets stiff and so it gets less clingy.  The material is more comfortable when damp.  That behavior makes these materials ideal for tropical weather.

Here’s a detail shot of the Sun Surf.  They’ve gone to the trouble of matching the print up for the pocket, and the buttons are made of a type of wood.

And if you’re at a loss as to how you can wear a shirt like this…

Here’s a pic of H.I. showing you how to wear a hawaiian shirt.  If you haven’t seen it, Raising Arizona is a great movie.  It also taught me a lot about how to be a father.  :-)

Klax-on:

http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/amekajishop-klax-on/stj53-bkwh.html

Black version on 2nd:

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/2nd/fh-stj-53-bkxbk/

Melton wool with vegetable tanned horse leather arms.

The script kind of doesn’t make sense, but it actually adds to the character of the jacket.

That’s the way the ball bounce! The chain is not stronger than its weakest.

A left-handed skeleton with a flaming swing.  I love it.

I wonder if Flathead will make this jacket again?

http://www.buzzricksons.jp/product/us_air_force-0019.html

It looks amazing, and it looks very loud.  I thought it looks too loud to wear in public.

Hinoya have some fit pics which didn’t change my opinion.

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/hinoya/br11540/

But now that I’ve seen some pictures scanned from the Beams catalog on ACL.

http://www.acontinuouslean.com/2009/09/22/the-beams-autumn-winter-2009-10-mens-catalog/

These pics make the jacket look incredibly wearable.  I don’t think I have the style to pull that look off, but some people certainly can.

Most tank jackets with slash pockets are a khaki colour. eg.

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/hinoya/br10994_01/

Buzz Ricksons found an original vintage brown leaf colour Tank Jacket with a crown chevron zipper, and they produced a replication of this as the BR11096. (around 2007?)

http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/amekajishop-klax-on/br11096.html

This year they have a plain version of the same jacket as the BR11545. They also have a version of this with a painted pink tank decal on the back.

Details:

MATERIAL?Cotton – West Point Uniform Twill?
COLOR?Brown?
FASTENER?CROWN Military Use Aluminum Die Casting Chevron?
LINING?26oz. Wool Blanket?
LABEL?Buzz Rickson Sportswear Co., Inc.

It’s quite warm. I was originally looking at the B10 and the N-1 jackets, but they were just to hot and bulky for what I can wear, and I settled on this jacket instead.

Other Tank versions you might find interesting:

• William Gibson Black Version (which has a regular and a long version)

  http://item.rakuten.co.jp/hinoya/br11459/

• Real McCoys Taxi Driver
  

  http://www.realmccoys.co.jp/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=508&osCsid=03dc3396973b531a67114ab393f545a4

• Real McCoys Caballero
  

  http://www.realmccoys.co.jp/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=190&osCsid=9a785fc7c4c71a25dcb65dab6d24ebcd

• Toys McCoys Batman
  

Tank Jackets in the Movies:

• Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) in Taxi Driver wears a version of the Tank jacket with the Gorilla patch on the arm. This is the Real McCoys replica jacket above.
  
• Eugene “Doc” Roe wears a Tank jacket in Band of Brothers, especially seen in episode 5.
  

I also wanted to look at the Buzz Ricksons replica pea coat as an alternative
http://www.buzzricksons.jp/product/us_navy-0018.html
but apparently it sold out in October!

Etymology of “dungaree”

The term “dungaree” was associated with a coarse undyed calico fabric that was produced and sold in a region near Dongari Killa (also called Fort George) in Bombay (now Mumbai) in India. The cloth was cheap and often poorly woven. As such, it was used by the poorer classes for clothing and by various navies as a sail cloth. Sailors often re-used old sails to make clothes. In time, the name of the cloth came to also mean an item of clothing made out of it.

I always thought dungaree was the same as chambray, but this cloth is different to chambray I have owned in the past.

Here’s a definition of Chambray from thefreedictionary.com:

A fine lightweight fabric woven with white threads across a colored warp.

---

[Alteration of French cambrai, cambric, after Cambrai, a city of northern France.]

So Chambray is closer to denim because it has the coloured warp and white weft. Except denim has a twill weave.


It’s got a bit of the old printed typography on the inside (which I think is way overused in current fashions), but it’s limited to the inside, so I didn’t mind.


Here is the same shirt on Amazon! Seems like a good price, but I don’t understand that size.