Indigo denim is one of the most popular fabrics in the world of menswear. We find it in some of our casual shirts, our beloved trucker jackets, and most importantly our jeans. Every guy out there worth his salt (at least when menswear is concerned) has at least one item made with indigo denim and its hard to see why not.
Firstly, indigo is a historic dye. First done in India, it moved throughout the world with the rise of different nations and empires. Its rich blue color that can be treated and faded in different ways made it an iconic dye to be used across many things. As we all know, blue became the color for workwear and casual wear, so it’s use with twilled cotton pants (like jeans) was a natural progression. Now it’s hard to separate denim from it’s iconic blue color.
As menswear historians and enthusiasts, we at Craftsman have always loved our indigo denim. Even before we formed this company, we took pride in getting raw and washed denim for our jeans and denim jackets. As time went on, we realized that we could bring this fabric to other designs we liked. After all, if we made a suede version of a denim jacket, could not the opposite work as well?
We’re proud to curate the Indigo Collection. Made up of a few of our favorite designs, both old and new, this collection is a testament to our love of indigo denim. All of it sourced from our friends at a special Japanese mill, one of the last bastions of quality indigo denim in the world. The denim even features our own custom green selvedge, as a nod to our special Cortina colour.
You’ll see gurkha pants, made from rigid raw denim and our soft stonewashed version, both guaranteed to age well from each wear. For those of you who are moving into warmer months (we’re looking at you Australia), there’s our washed indigo gurkha shorts. The collection doesn’t just stop at bottoms though.
If you’ve been following our blog and instagram lately, you’ll know that we’ve produced new jackets this season out of Japanese denim. The one we’ve pushed most prominently is the De Niro M65 field jacket, which takes an stoic military design and puts it into something more casual and interesting when done in denim. But we weren’t done yet.
We’re also finally launching the M43 variant, which stands out with its camp collar and contrast pick stitching- the 70’s revival is real with this one. There’s also a special limited model of our Grant A-1 jacket, which also features contrast stitching with cream knitted wool collar and cuffs. All of these jackets are made to wear incredibly soft and are able to be thrown on as you leave the door for a nightcap or quick bite to eat.
Once you’ve picked out the jackets and pants, you can even go for a full tonal look with blue themed shirts, like the Jimmy Polo or the textured cotton-linen band collar vacation shirt. You already know that we’re big fans of monochromatic fits (especially with blue) and obviously we think you should try it for yourself!
Obviously all of these designs are nothing new, but what this collection should present is the power of indigo denim. Simply taking a classic design (with a few modern updates) and putting it in a historic dye and material is enough to give it a new vibe. One that exudes what we love from a great pair of jeans: to wear well with age and leave behind great personal character. Hell, we’d even love it if you DM us pictures of how these garments look after months of wear!
