Men's Lifestyle October 10, 2025 0 Comments

Unlock Your Ultimate Style Power: The Jean Jackets That Transform Every Man’s Look and Confidence Instantly

Isn’t there something utterly captivating about a denim jacket? It’s wild when you consider we’ve drifted so far from its rugged, workwear roots that nowadays, even restaurants have to plead with guys to throw on a polo shirt. Yet somehow—a denim jacket still carries that indefinable edge, that “don’t-mess-with-me” vibe. Did you ever wonder how the term “Canadian tuxedo” came about? Legend has it, Bing Crosby was refused entry to a hotel just because he dared to rock denim, while Elvis steered clear of it, seeing denim as a symbol of the working class. The irony is rich—denim is stitched right into the very fabric of blue-collar identity.

I take the opposite path—I channel Bing, not Elvis—and I own my denim. Thinking of my granddad, a humble Louisiana farmer who pretty much lived in denim, reminds me there’s no sob story needed to pull off this timeless piece. Whether you’re dressing for church, a fancy dinner, or just chilling out, there’s a denim jacket that fits the moment—and let me tell you, it makes anyone look cooler and sexier. Ready for the deep dive? Let me walk you through the three iconic brands and their legendary jackets, so you know exactly which one deserves a spot in your closet. LEARN MORE.

God, don’t you love a denim jacket? We are so far removed from it being actual workwear, and fashion has become casual to the point that restaurants have to beg men to wear polo shirts. But somehow a good denim jacket still retains an edge.

According to lore, the phrase “Canadian tuxedo” came about because of an instance in which Bing Crosby was denied entrance to a hotel for wearing denim. (He had been hunting that day.) Elvis was actually known to avoid denim because it was still associated with being working-class. It is—along with the chambray shirt—also the source of the term “blue collar.”

I like to take the opposite approach to Elvis, more the Bing Crosby route, and lean into it. No one needs a story in order to wear a jacket, but I like to think about my granddad, a lifelong Louisiana farmer of little means who wore denim overalls or a denim jacket pretty much every day of his life. He only changed for church. So church, nice dinners, important work days—I’ll wear a suit and tie. But anything less? I’m always in a denim jacket and jeans.

But the best thing is that you don’t need a blue-collar sob story to wear it. In my mind, anybody looks cooler, more at ease, and sexier in a good denim jacket. And since I have this platform, I’ll give you a little crash course in which one to buy.

Fred Duval//Getty Images

Early-career Liam Gallagher, looking a bit worse for wear, still looks incredible in a denim jacket.

Three Brands, Eight Jackets

So much about this subject boils down to history. And the story with denim jackets, just like the story with regular ol’ jeans, is a story of the Big Three brands: Levi’s, Lee, and Wrangler. Pretty much every new denim jacket you can buy is a riff on a handful of models these companies made. So let’s do a quick bit of homework.

Levi’s

Levi’s Premium Type I Jacket

Now 30% Off

Levi’s Vintage Clothing 1953 Type II Jacket

Levi’s Vintage Clothing 1961 557 Type III

Levi’s is your main actor for trucker jackets, so this is going to be the story’s longest section. Conveniently, its three models have become known by the order in which they were introduced to the catalog. The Type I was manufactured from 1905 to 1953, and it was the first jacket to have the now famous Red Tab, which was introduced in 1936. The Type II was made from 1953 to 1962. The Type III has been produced ever since 1962. Until recently, Levi’s was making only the Type III, but it has since cashed in on the love of vintage with reproductions of the Type I and Type II in its Levi’s Vintage Clothing line as well as the main collection. I’ll say more on that in a bit, but let’s talk differences in each jacket first.

The Type I is the most “chore coat” of the three, with a single work pocket on the front. On early models, like the ones Levi’s used for the new reproduction above, there was no pocket flap; on later models, there was a pocket flap. Two pleats run down the front placket, which allows for a bit more room in the chest, and a cinch buckle on the lower back allows you to tighten it as needed. Anti-fashion and working-class heroes would wear them, but it was not couth. Bing Crosby was known to wear one on his Nevada ranch. This was when Levi’s was pure workwear. As such, these jackets in original form are exceptionally rare, and the price is always in the thousands.

bing crosby wearing a levi's type i jacket

Jack Albin//Getty Images

Bing Crosby, an underrated pick for style inspiration, wearing one of the most pristine Levi’s Type I jackets you’ll ever see.

Type II jackets are almost just as rare, because we’re still talking about work clothing. Plus, these had a short nine-year stint in the catalog. These jackets also command nothing short of thousand-dollar price tags, but they’re less sought-after and less in the public consciousness because of the short run. The most famous cultural moment is Martin Sheen playing a young garbage-collector-turned-serial-killer in 1950s South Dakota in Terrence Malick’s Badlands.

The Type III is the denim jacket against which all others are measured. First produced in 1962, it was well accepted by the time the Summer of Love came around in ’67 that the jean jacket was becoming associated with the counterculture. For me, this is the peak of the fashion denim jacket. The fit is close to the body and cropped, and the pleats are replaced with V-shaped flat-felled seams on both sides of the body. It accentuates whatever natural V shape you have while still reinforcing the jacket for real work. The Type III also has the biggest design change on any of the Levi’s jackets in its tenure. Hand-warmer pockets were added to the front in the early ’80s. They have not left the front of the jacket since. Practically, I understand this, but I think it ruins the whole look of the jacket. It’s made it too long.

In general, Levi’s jackets are a good go-to for a lot of guys. They’re easy to wear, readily available, and not too pricey. The high-end Blue Tab stuff is very good because it has a point of view, and the Levi’s Vintage Clothing line gives you a taste of the grail-level vintage without the multi-thousand-dollar investment. That said, if I’m hunting for a truly fantastic denim jacket geared toward someone with an enthusiast mindset, I would prefer to go to a small maker that’s done the work to re-create jackets in excessive detail. More on that later.

celine show, front row, spring summer 2019, paris fashion week, france 28 sep 2018

WWD//Getty Images

Virgil Abloh was a well-known lover of the pre-’80s Type III shape.

Lee

I promise I’ll be brief in these next two sections. Lee introduced its first denim jacket, the 91J, in 1925. It was full cut and longer than any of the “trucker” styles you see in this story. If you saw it today, you’d call it a chore coat. The real story with Lee starts and ends with the 101J Cowboy Jacket. Originally it looked a lot like a Levi’s Type I, but in 1948 Lee created the New Lee Rider. Both versions were marketed to cowboys as slim, cropped, and (if you check the old magazine ads) sexy. The Rider has distinct angled chest pockets and zigzag stitching down the placket. Friend of Esquire Albert Muzquiz, known as EdgyAlbert online, considers the Lee Rider the best denim jacket ever made. (See this video about Lee’s new Buck Mason collab.) Not my opinion, but I respect it.

As with the Type III, Lee added hand-warmer pockets to the 101J in the ’80s, and that kind of killed the style for me. (Not that I remember the ’80s.) It’s plenty easy to find vintage 101J jackets from the 30 pre-pocket years on eBay, so I suggest you do that.

Anwar Hussein//Getty Images

Redford, a very well-established well of style inspiration, rocks a Storm Rider like no one else.

alain delon et romy schneider tournent un film en 1968

Patrice PICOT//Getty Images

Better known for suits and fancy French clothes, Alain Delon also dressed down better than anyone esle.

The other Lee jacket worth noting is the Storm Rider. It was just a Rider with a blanket lining and corduroy collar. Something like it entered the Lee catalog in the late ’40s, and it’s never left. The golden years of the Storm Rider were the ’60s and ’70s, as shown by Robert Redford and Alain Delon above.

Wrangler

Though I love Wrangler below the belt, it’s kind of the black sheep of the jean-jacket market. It was a big player in the golden era of denim jackets, but it never had a huge collector base the way Levi’s and Lee did. The brand was younger and less consistent with model types. The only collector items I’d call out here are “Blue Bell labels.” Blue Bell was the original parent company to Wrangler, and before the mid-’60s logos would feature a blue bell.

Mark and Colleen Hayward//Getty Images

Through the late 1960s and early 1970s, you’ll find plenty of pictures of John Lennon in a Wrangler jacket.

Wrangler, like Levi’s, has three models of note. If you ask me, I think John Lennon is the most famous Wrangler Guy when it comes to denim jackets. In the photo above, Lennon is performing with the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton for Rock and Roll Circus. It’s a tough one to see, but he’s pictured in what is either a Wrangler 11MJ (or an 111MJ, a slight variant that’s near indistinguishable). The 11MJ was the brand’s first denim jacket, and has a very similar look to the Levi’s Type II: double chest pockets, front pleats. In the ’50s Wrangler introduced the 8MZ which is the zip jacket Brad Pitt wears as Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. Then in the ’60s it ditched the zip to make the 124MJ, its most famous jacket. The 124MJ is easy-to-find vintage; the other two models are rarer.

Okay, Now for Actually Buying a Jacket

Shit, okay, that was a lot. Pure information. I had to get it out of the way, sorry. Now that you’ve had your crash course, let me say this: Levi’s is all you really need to remember. When buying a modern denim jacket, almost every rendition of the style references one of those three Levi’s models. Certain brands will reference the Lee Rider, but you’ll almost never see a reproduction of the Wrangler styles.

For that reason, I would advise anyone that who the Wrangler looks to become a die-hard vintage shopper. I consider the 124MJ one of the best vintage values on the market. You can find one from the ’60s or ’70s for between $100 and $200. For the 11MJ, the brand remade the jackets for the Japanese market in the ’90s, so the stock is available and well-made. Vintage 8MZ jackets (the Cliff Booth zip) are especially difficult to find, and when you do they have that torn-up vintage charm that makes them resell for $500-plus.

liam and noel gallagher of oasis performing at wembley in july 2000

Benedict Johnson//Getty Images

Liam Gallagher, much like his hero John Lennon, rocks in a Wrangler, though it’s done with a particularly Oasis nonchalance.

The Lee Rider, like the Wrangler 124MJ, is the one of the best-value vintage items you could ever buy. It’s so easy to find on eBay for $150 and often in great condition. I will not touch the vintage Levi’s market, because that would be its own 10,000-word story. Just know it’s almost impossible to find a good deal on a vintage Levi’s jacket.

I honestly think vintage is the way forward here, but as for current jackets, there are many I love. Husbands Paris makes an elegant Type III style, which is probably the one I love the most. If I had to pick a second, it’d be from Fortela, a label we love over here at Esquire. Recently Lucchese and Wrangler did a collaboration that put the old 124MJ pattern in deadstock denim with antique copper finishes; here’s hoping that one has a sequel. Polo Ralph Lauren has a perennially stocked model. Nashville-based brand Imogene + Willie makes one that stays true to its workwear roots. Hedi Slimane, with his rock-star-chic thing, has always been a standard-bearer with denim and leather jackets. Though he’s not at a house currently, you can find secondhand jackets from his spells at Dior, Saint Laurent, and Celine with relative ease. They will all be versions of a skinny-boy Type III. Loro Piana makes a beautiful one with cashmere woven in. Rick Owens DRKSHDW makes a killer selvedge one that’s cut a bit boxier.

Real jacket freaks will want to dip into the Japanese market. As with regular jeans, and honestly most categories of menswear, Japan does it to the nth degree. If you’re in the U.S. and unsure of where to start, Self Edge is the perfect place. Iron Heart is a good stop because it makes obvious replicas of Type I, Type II, and Type III jackets in crazy heavyweight denim. Full Count makes similar reproductions. Sugar Cane makes a cool 1943-model jacket. Buzz Rickson’s and William Gibson do a dyed black version of a WWII Type I. Denim nerds were worried when LVMH bought a big chunk of Kapital, maker of many great jean jackets, but I’m optimistic. This jacket is proof.

That said, I think vintage is the coolest option. I once found a lightly worn Levi’s Type III from somewhere between 1967 and 1970 for $50, but that took me 10,000 hours and a lot of luck. It’s sitting in the back of my closet while I wear my RRL reproduction to shreds. If you’re on a budget, I suggest you get a vintage Lee Rider or Wrangler 124MJ and wear it to pieces. If you’ve got some cash to spare, look for an old Levi’s Type III.

In any case, I have very little styling opinions on a denim jacket. As I said, it’s a fuck-you style. You shouldn’t care what I say about it. Layer it, pop the collar, stitch it with patches. The only thing I advise against is going pre-distressed. That’s your job. These jackets look best when you don’t care about them. Wear it as often as you possibly can and get it repaired only when a hole is big enough to affect your daily life. You’ll remember every blemish, and people will say, “Look at Slim. Wish I had a denim jacket like that.”