Chasing the Origins of the Chore Jacket

At Blackhorse Lane Ateliers, one of the fundamental pillars we believe in is emotional connectivity with our garments. The memories you amass over time, the nicks, stains and repairs collected along the way, give a garment a life of its own that becomes very hard to discard.
This is also why we love to repair garments, both our own and those made by other brands. We have always believed that garments carry memories. They absorb the stories of those who wear them, the work, the weather, the wear.
Few pieces embody that principle quite like the chore jacket.

A staple in our collection, the E17 Chore Jacket has been with us since we first launched back in 2016 and quickly became one of our 'hero' pieces. If you’ve ever visited our Coal Drops Yard store, you may have noticed a framed chore jacket mounted on the wall.

That belonged to our factory manager, Kenan, who wore it day in, day out, for six years straight. It wasn’t easy convincing him to trade it in… but we finally did, just so we could showcase how this garment evolves with time and hard work. It's even more striking when you consider that the E17 is cut from a double-indigo denim, a fabric that takes longer to fade but rewards your patience handsomely.

Alongside the E17, we’ve added other interpretations, from the indigo-striped E11 Hickory Chore Jacket to the hybrid minimalism of the E18 Uniform Shirt. The chore jacket has become more than a practical layer. It's a piece shaped by culture, work, and need. So we decided it was worth delving deeper into its origins.

So What Is a Chore Jacket?

The term didn’t enter common usage until the early 20th century and even then, it was more a matter of convenience than formal classification. In newspaper clippings from the time, you’ll find references to “coats,” “jumpers,” or simply “jackets.” A Kansas dry goods ad from 1901, for instance, listed “chore jackets” alongside “Sunday jackets” — the idea being that one was for labour, the other for church.

Traditionally, a chore jacket is waist- or thigh-length, made from durable fabric (duck canvas, denim, or moleskin), fastened with buttons, and equipped with several patch pockets. That’s the standard description, but as any vintage collector or designer will tell you, the reality is rarely so straightforward.

The Fabric of Function: From Moleskin to Indigo

By the late 19th century, France was fully industrialised. As agricultural workers moved into factories, mines, and railways, their clothing needed to evolve. Home-sewn garments made from rags wouldn’t cut it anymore. Enter: cotton drill and moleskin, two of the earliest hard-wearing fabrics used for workwear.

Moleskin is a densely woven cotton cloth with a brushed surface that resembles suede or, as the name suggests, the hide of a mole (which leads to some hilarious confusion). Durable, crease-resistant, and tough against friction, it was the best available material for labourers who needed to rely on their clothing to last. Fewer rips meant fewer patches for their better halves to sew on back home. Moleskin wasn’t a style choice, it was a necessity.

As the industrial dye market grew, moleskin jackets began to take on a uniform identity; coloured in newly affordable shades of benzoate blue and, more iconically, indigo. Once a pigment reserved for the wealthy, indigo had historically denoted class and power. “Blue blood” and “royal blue” weren’t just figures of speech. So when France’s working class began adopting it en masse, it symbolised more than practicality. It marked a quiet revolution in status. This gave birth to the term bleu de travail, literally blue of work, and indirectly the idea of the blue-collar worker.

Production de Masse: The Rise of the French Work Jacket

By the early 1900s, workwear production was ramping up. French manufacturers were on it, and especially Le Mont Saint Michel, who started making chore jackets in 1913 in Pontorson, Normandy. They added the now-classic inside breast pocket, usually stitched on the right, perfect for valuables like your ID, a few coins, or a pocket watch. Their label was sewn directly over the pocket too, a quiet signal of quality.

Roots in Utility: France or the Frontier?

Many point to France as the birthplace of the chore jacket, and certainly, the bleu de travail forms a strong foundation. These jackets were roomy, pocket-laden, durable, and designed to be thrown over overalls, to carry tools, to endure.

But look westward, and you’ll find American workers developing similar solutions independently. As early as the 1860s, sack coats were commonplace in the U.S., worn by both soldiers and civilians. Levi’s listed sack coats in their 1880s catalogues. Carhartt’s “Engineer Sack Coat” debuted in 1917, and by 1923 it had evolved: denim or duck canvas, corduroy collars, riveted patch pockets, triple-stitched seams, and blanket linings for winter.

Was the American chore coat inspired by France? Perhaps not directly. Its lineage may trace further back. Through 19th-century shell jackets were worn by Confederate troops, and earlier still they wore servant jackets and military-issue roundabouts. It’s a reminder that garments of function often arise simultaneously in different corners of the world, shaped by shared needs.

The Messy Middle: Shells, Sacks, and Servants

Chore jackets weren’t designed so much as developed. They’re the result of practical evolution, form following function over centuries.

Military shell jackets, like those issued by the Richmond Depot during the Civil War, were short, often pocketless, and made of wool. Yet earlier examples, like the 1812 U.S. infantry roundabout jacket, featured stand collars and welt pockets that resemble chore jackets more closely.

Sack coats, often longer, with straight backs and minimal shaping, began appearing in France as early as the 1840s. An 1844 newspaper described them as “a kind of body-umbrella,” designed to protect more than to impress. They too played a role in the evolution of the chore jacket, blurring the line between military uniform and civilian workwear.

By the early 20th century, these various forms, shell, sack, servant, and engineer, had begun to merge into the familiar four-pocket design we know today.

Who Wore It Well?

As the 20th century unfolded, the chore jacket outgrew its working-class roots and entered cultural consciousness.

Paul Newman wore one in Cool Hand Luke. Tim Robbins escaped Shawshank in his in The Shawshank Redemption. And Bill Cunningham, the iconic street style photographer, zipped around New York City in a faded Parisian bleu de travail, which he reportedly picked up for $20 at the Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville.

Artists found kindred spirit in chore jackets too. Hardwearing, unfussy, and equipped with paintbrush-sized pockets, the jacket became a studio essential. Diego Rivera, the celebrated Mexican painter, can be seen wearing a denim chore jacket in multiple photographs, a striking testament to the garment’s global reach.

Jackson Pollock was another artist usually seen painting in his denim chore coat

In the 1960s, chore coats and denim workwear took on new meaning when adopted by the Black Civil Rights Movement. Groups like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) rejected the “Sunday best” suits and dresses worn by other organisations and instead chose denim overalls, jackets, and chore coats. The choice was symbolic: a show of solidarity with Black sharecroppers, who had long been forced into workwear as a marker of economic oppression.

Leaders such as Andrew Young were photographed marching from Selma to Montgomery in overalls, while writers like James Baldwin wore chore jackets alongside organisers. For activists, these garments were not about fashion but about resistance, a uniform of equality and rebellion, rooted in the lives of working people.

Forward to the 1990s, and with it, the rise of hip-hop and streetwear. Artists like Tupac Shakur, Eazy-E, and Biggie Smalls adopted oversized versions not just for durability, but for what they symbolised; resilience, ruggedness, and realness. Workwear became a statement. And workwear, like so much else in fashion, owes a debt to Black culture for bringing it to the forefront.

Today, chore coats are as likely to be worn in a Bar Italia as in a workshop in Walthamstow, layered under sports coats or styled with sneakers, a garment that continues to cross lines of class, culture, and geography.

Our Interpretation

Our contribution is crafting chore jackets that nod to the past both in terms of quality fabrics sourced from the best mills and construction methods which predate the mass production which has invaded the high street, valuing our tailoring heritage and making sure garments are still made to the same level as before. The goal is to make future vintage that can be passed on for generations.

• The E11 is our classic: cut from Japanese hickory stripe denim and as well as standard denim, it references vintage railroad styles with a raglan shoulder while breaking in beautifully with age.

• The E17 takes a tailored approach, with clean lines and structured balance, a smarter version of the traditional worker’s coat.

• The E18 Uniform Shirt blurs boundaries altogether, part overshirt, part chore, designed for ease.

Each one made in our East London workshop.

A Jacket with No Borders

To call the chore jacket French or American is to miss the point. It’s a garment born of necessity, shaped by soldiers, servants, engineers, and artists. A true everyman’s jacket. Its silhouette is democratic, its history varied and uncertain, and its future wide open.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether it came from a battlefield or a barn, a Parisian railway or a Detroit factory floor. What matters is that it works, and keeps working, long after trends deem it in or out.

In the chore jacket, we find kin, a garment built not for fashion, but for function.

References

We'd like to thank @denim_seeker for his well researched and informative post 'Chore Jackets - Tales of a Chaotic Past which helped with this entry.