I have a love-hate relationships with denim jackets.
Growing up, it was one of those pieces that wouldn’t leave my wardrobe all throughout my tweens. You know, it was the early 2000s which meant a denim trucker jacket in that classic, Y2K brown wash was de rigeur. Fitted in the waist and too tight in certain parts, my H&M jacket was one of the last pieces I remember wanting to have purely because everyone else did. In the years since growing out of it, I chose to stay away from similar pieces, often feeling like this jacket was too referential of a time in my life where I didn’t have full ownership of my own style.
But then, sometimes in the last few years, things started to change. Suddenly, a denim jacket didn’t need to look like that old denim jacket. Freshly reinterpreted by fashion designers and high-street labels, they came in unexpected shapes and reimagined traditional denim colours in totally non-traditional ways. I even started seeing vintage pieces in a new way, finding excitement in printed linings and cropped, 1980s shapes or strong dagger collars dating to the 1970s.
From this most recent edition of London Fashion Week, it’s clear that I’m not a lone ranger in this denim jacket revolution. A piece that perfectly encapsulates the dress-code-free nature of street style is quickly becoming my favourite new/old spring staple, and London’s coolest fashion girlies agree.
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For day three of London Fashion Week, I whipped out one of the most recent acquisitions – a Levi’s Blouson Trucker Jacket. The dropped waist, a curved shape with pleats in the back and balloon sleeves, the funnel neck. It’s a clear re-imagination of vintage elements brought together in a fresh way. The Levi’s jacket is a distant cousin of the eye-wateringly spenny IT jacket by Chloé, but far more approachable and – yes, I’ll say it – even more wearable. I styled mine with a Chopova Lowena pleated midi skirt, black wide-leg jeans, a Damson Madder polo and my pre-loved red Loewe Puzzle bag from eBay.