{"product_id":"80s-old-marithe-francois-girbaud-closed-denim-jacket-size-50","title":"[~80's] Old Marithé François Girbaud Closed Denim Jacket Size.50","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA ‘Denim Jacket’ by CLOSED by Marithé François Girbaud, estimated to date from around the 1980s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA piece that seems to have stitched a tailored jacket and a riders jacket together in denim.\u003cbr\u003ePut into words it sounds a little violent, but seeing the garment itself should convince you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMarithé + François Girbaud is the brand of the French designer couple \"Marithé Bachellerie\" and \"François Girbaud\".\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat the two, who met in 1960s Paris, set themselves to was work the fashion world of the day would not so much as glance at.\u003cbr\u003eHow to \"treat\" denim.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWashed jeans are taken for granted now, but at the time denim was nothing but stiff, navy work clothing.\u003cbr\u003eTo wash it, abrade it, strip the colour, and produce from the outset the expression of a garment already worn in — François Girbaud is said to be among the very first to put this thinking into practice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStone washing, in which stones are tumbled in with the wash, is one of the techniques that spread from their experiments.\u003cbr\u003eTrace back the pale-coloured jeans lining shops the world over today and one arrives at this couple's work. Quite something, don't you think?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd the brand the two founded in 1978 is the one recorded on this piece's label: \"CLOSED\".\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBegun in partnership with an Italian sewing factory, the brand was a place where the experimental spirit of Paris crossed with the tailoring skill of Italy.\u003cbr\u003eThe label at the neck carries \"BASIC\" in orange lettering, the \"CLOSED\" logo, and a single line reading \"MADE IN ITALY\".\u003cbr\u003eThe sight of those three set together seems to carry the air of the period all by itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow, the piece introduced here is a genuinely unusual thing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst, the collar is tailored.\u003cbr\u003eA proper notched lapel, with a lower collar, made up in denim cloth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe standard for a denim jacket is a small collar on a stand, and here that has deliberately been replaced with the collar of a suit jacket.\u003cbr\u003eBy that one move alone, denim that ought to be rough suddenly begins to look refined — curious, isn't it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe front closes with two buttons.\u003cbr\u003eThis too is interesting: the upper button catches on a denim loop while the lower one has an ordinary buttonhole — not asymmetric left to right, but asymmetric top to bottom.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd then the pockets. This, I think, is the greatest point of interest on the piece.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the waist, both sides carry large patch pockets with their corners rounded off — but what is laid over them differs from side to side.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn one side, a welted slit pocket.\u003cbr\u003eA welt is a technique in which the pocket mouth is bound with a narrow strip of cloth, properly belonging to the breast pocket of a tailored jacket and the like.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd on the other, a small flap pocket closed with a snap button.\u003cbr\u003eThis is plainly a device drawn from the riders jacket, and the snap is stamped \"CLOSED\".\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhich is to say, within a single garment, gentleman's tailoring and the motorcyclist's coat live side by side, divided left and right.\u003cbr\u003eOrdinarily the thing would fall apart, and that it holds together is where one feels the true strength of this couple.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the shoulder across the chest runs a diagonal seam.\u003cbr\u003eThanks to that single line, dimensional shadow arises across a denim front body that tends otherwise to read flat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe cloth is a denim of solid thickness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd yet it has already come to sufficient softness, so it follows the body from the moment it is put on.\u003cbr\u003eThe thread is unified in orange stitching, and white wear has risen along the seam allowances.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDenim is a cloth that records its wearer's habits exactly as they are.\u003cbr\u003eAt the elbows, at the cuffs, and at the edges of the pockets, the way you use it from here will be cut straight into it.\u003cbr\u003eThis piece has not yet run dry, so a good deal of room to raise it remains.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe colour is an indigo fade, the colour drawn out to a moderate degree.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSettled between deep navy and pale blue, one might call it the most usable depth of all.\u003cbr\u003eWith a tailored collar attached, this lightness of tone works towards a certain ease.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThrown over a white shirt, with grey slacks below.\u003cbr\u003eIt is denim, yet the collar is that of a jacket, so this alone should compose a well-ordered impression.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOf course one may break it down with a T-shirt beneath, and pairing it with denim of a similar shade for a unified look would be interesting as well.\u003cbr\u003eIt is a piece with a quirk, and yet once on it settles in with surprising ordinariness. That kind of garment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe size marking reads \"50\".\u003cbr\u003eRoughly equivalent to a Japanese \"L ~ XL\", I should think.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDropped shoulders, with generous room through the body and the armholes: a relaxed silhouette in the manner of the eighties.\u003cbr\u003eThe front body is cut longer than the back, so worn open the vertical line is emphasised and it falls beautifully.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are signs of use, including the wear marks peculiar to the cloth and some fading, but no significant damage that would affect wear, so there is plenty of life left in it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe brand itself continues today, but a piece of this period — and this experimental — is no longer made.\u003cbr\u003eA design that houses tailoring and the riders jacket in one garment, with neither profit nor saleability taken into account, was a game permitted only by the Europe of that time, I think.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are any number of denim jackets in the world, but one will scarcely find this same shape.\u003cbr\u003eTo anyone looking for a piece with a quirk, I should be glad to hand the next chapter over.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"VIEUX ET NOUVEAU","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47982184464562,"sku":"J01099","price":54800.0,"currency_code":"JPY","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0554\/2140\/3314\/files\/J01099-1_e7db71d0-0955-47f2-bff3-56233e11dc73.jpg?v=1788334594","url":"https:\/\/vieuxetnouveau-shop.com\/en\/products\/80s-old-marithe-francois-girbaud-closed-denim-jacket-size-50","provider":"VIEUX ET NOUVEAU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}