Aside from being tens of thousands of people’s hall pass, what do Jacob Elordi, Austin Butler, Harry Styles, and Jeremy Allen White have in common? All of them can’t get enough of their blue chore coats.
Which is some news, considering we thought we were potentially in a post-chore coat world. It’s even more significant when you consider that none of them are wearing theirs as part of any brand ambassador duties. Instead, they’re being papped in them while off-duty, strolling the cobbled streets of Europe, cheering at baseball games, or lounging poolside in Italy. And they all look so good, in an enviably disheveled way, that it’s making us think we called time on a classic too soon. The chore coat’s ease, mixed with its romantic history, is clearly too good to move on from. (It also helps with pulling off this season’s elite style move: primary color blocking.)
Jumping briefly from the present to the past, here’s what you need to know about the style. In circulation since the Industrial Revolution, the first wearers of the distinct, vibrant indigo moleskin chore coat were mechanics, miners, and rail workers who were given them as part of their employer-issued uniform. (These were no color-loving bosses, sadly—indigo dye was simply the cheapest at the time.) In France, they then became known as bleu de travail, or “work blues,” and once they stopped being worn professionally, in the second half of the 20th century, the hundreds of thousands that had been produced ended up in flea markets for softer-handed shoppers to enjoy.
Today, the vintage marketplace remains full of old chore coats with varying degrees of sweet, sweet patina. But if you’d rather have your own sweat stains on your jacket, you might want to consider springing for something new. (Especially given that some heritage workwear makers still produce the jacket to this day, notably the 113-year-old Le Mont St Michel.) Below, 11 of our favorite blue chore coats right now, in various states of Jacob Elordi-approved distressed. Go on, become somebody’s hall pass yourself.
