Work Jacket in Coated Cotton

The industrial revolution led to the use of blue working coats. Intended for the worker, they were resistant and practical.

Its multiple pockets (three outside and one inside) ensured that the worker could keep useful and less useful tools nearby, while its shortened sleeves prevented it from getting caught in a sharp machine.  It owes its name to its colour, Prussian blue, obtained from 

indigo, a low-cost, low-maintenance dye plant. The choice of moleskine, a thick, brushed fabric, guarantees the safety of the workers who wear it. This sturdy jacket protects against sharp tools as well as metal splashes.

The moleskine jacket quickly became a symbol. Cut from fabrics of varying colours depending on the work profession, it is a tool of differentiation and identification. Unlike the old work coats, which were sometimes decorated with embroidery borrowed from regional costumes, it is not an indicator of geographical origins and does not differentiate the age or sex of people wearing it. The "blue" expresses a more social and professional, working-class and masculine identity. It is also a political image, the figure of a social class that extends beyond the individual, as shown by the visual vocabulary developed by the parties and trade unions during the inter-war period. With the expression "blue collar", it even became a metonymy: the collar designates the jacket, the jacket the worker, and the blue the metaphor of those who wear it, in opposition to the "white collar", the figure of the managers. Roland Barthes rightly mentions this: "Blue overalls are used to work, but they also display work". 

Over the years, blue jackets gradually lost their primary function and became a receptacle and symbol of protests. From the factory to rural work, blue jackets found their place in the city. After the First World War, it became a support for several artists and thinkers who reflected on the renewal of clothing. The industrial aesthetic, represented by artistic movements such as Bauhaus, influenced clothing culture from the 1920s. In May 1968, it was worn by student strikers as a claim to an inheritance, and was hijacked, taken up and quoted well beyond the student demonstrations. Work jacket in itself inspired fashion industry and soon there was an international craze for French workwear. In 1968, Yves Saint Laurent proposed a work suit. In 1999, it was Alexander McQueen's turn to draw on the working class wardrobe, this time for women. In the 2000s, Jean Paul Gaultier invited the overalls, while Hermès presented a jumpsuit. In 2015, Agnès B., Dries Van Noten and Kenzo were directly inspired by French workwear. Finally, in 2018, Maria Grazia Chiuri, for Dior, had her models walk in blue overalls. 

This enthusiasm is being spread internationally, particularly in Japan, where, not without connection with the developments in vintage and second-hand clothing, the question of signs of use is finding new recognition: often grated, with holes, with the colour faded in places and sometimes patched all over, the oldest blue work jackets, which show the signs of their function, are gaining a new form of popularity.