TCBで大戦モデルを作り始めてから4年が経ちました。
お陰様で４年間の間、店頭に並ぶ事はほとんど無く、生産が決まると常に予約で埋まる状況に驚いています。

もちろん勘違いしてはいけないと自分に言い聞かせてるはTCBが人気….という事では無くて、大戦モデルが惹きつけるパワーだと思います。

大戦モデルの人気の理由ってなんなんだろうと改めて考えてみました。
もちろんここ最近大戦モデルが定義された訳では無く、90年代から大戦モデルのリプロダクションは行われてた訳だし、90年代にショップスタッフをしてた私の個人的なイメージはXXモデルや66モデルの影に潜むちょっとサブ的なマニアックなモデル。位な位置付けだった気がします。

そんな大戦モデルがここ4-5年で何故フィーチャーされてるのか？
きっと日本人特有のクレイジーな探究心とSNSの普及によってVIntageの歴史の細分化が急激に進化した気がします。
そんな中で10本集めれば10通りの表情を見せてくれるのが大戦モデルが魅力的に映り始めたのかも知れません。

御多分に洩れず私たちも４年間S40’sを作らせて頂いてる中で様々なVintageの大戦モデルに出逢う事が出来ました。
そんな様々な表情と出逢った中でTCBS40’sにも様々な表情を持たせても良いのかな？と段々と思い始めた次第。
もちろん私もイレギュラーな個体を見る中で大戦モデルの虜になっていきました。
私は心の中で
『もしネルポケットの個体が出てきたら第２弾の大戦モデルを作りたい』
と企んでいました。
自分なりには古着屋を探したりオークションを毎日覗いたりとしましたが中々出会いません。
あまり頼りすぎるのも良く無いと思ってたのですが、1890年代のvintageを借りてお世話になってた古泉さんに聞いてみる事にしました。
『持ってはないですね。ネル生地の大戦は今までで世界で15本しか存在しない』
との事。
15本しか無いのなら難しいか…と諦めかけてた頃、古泉さんから連絡が
『井上さんがネルポケ無いですか？って聞いてきた何日か後になんとネルポケの話が舞い込んできて購入しましたとの事。』
※夢や希望は口に出してみるもんですね笑
私は今回も甘えたい趣旨を伝えて承諾を頂きサンプリングがスタートする運びとなりました。
ジャケットはネルポケに相応しいセットとなるとダウンポケット仕様と決めていました。そんな中、もう1人の協力者viktorに相談したらなんと持ってるとの事で先日の6月のSwedenのMTGの際に借りて帰ったという次第です。

今回私たちがサンプリングさせて頂いたのはおそらく戦時中の規制が続く中、物資不足が深刻になりポケット布の異素材を認めざるしかなかった、縫製の技術者たちも軍服等の生産に駆り出されて未熟な人たちが縫ったであろう大戦後期のイメージです。
JKは革パッチがとても低い位置に縫い付けられて、太いBOXステッチと下糸が黒いチェーンステッチ。百合バックルが特徴のモデル。
ジーンズに関しては、一見バックポケットのステッチも丁寧なのであまり特徴的では無いのかな？と思ったらなんと前ポケットの素材がネル生地という仕様になります。

シルエットもS40’sを作った時はVintageより着丈を長くしてアームホールや身幅も少しタイトに作る事によって合わせやすい様と考えて作りました。
ただ、今回はシルエットをVintageから修正を入れず肩の傾斜アームホールの付き方も変えずに作っています。
結果この頃特有の脇に生まれる皺が特有の色落ちを生んでくれると思います。
（現に参考にしたVintageにも脇の皺が谷になる事によって生まれる色の残りが確認出来ると思います）

是非S40’sを既に持たれてる方にも追加していたくなるような仕様だと思います。
10本あれば10通りある顔の１つを覗いて頂ければ嬉しいです。

It’s been four years since we started making S40’s Jacket & Jeans at TCB.
Thanks to you, we’ve rarely had them on the shelves in the past four years and everytime production plan is fixed they get sold out for pre-orders, which was a bit of a surprise for us. Of course, I always tell myself that it’s not because TCB is popular but because of the attraction that the war conditioned models have.

I thought again about the reason for the popularity of WW2 models.
It’s not that war models have not been defined recently but they were already there in the JP denim reproduction industry since the 90s. I used to work as a shop staff for a renowned vintage jeans shop, my personal image I had against the WW2 models in the 90s was that they were a bit of a sub-model, more of a niche model lurking in the shadow of XX and 66 models. I think that’s the position they were in.

Then why have war models been featured this much in the last four or five years?
I think that the breakdown analysis on how to tell the manufacturing era of jeans has evolved rapidly due to the crazy inquisitiveness of denim fans and the spread of social media. In this situation, war models may have started to look attractive because if you collect 10 of them, you can see 10 different looks.

We also have come across various vintage war models during the past few years
As we have seen such a variety of fabric, details, fade unique to WW2 jeans, we gradually began to think that it would be good to give TCBS40’s some variety as well.
Of course, I also became fascinated with war models as I saw more and more of them.

In my mind, I had a plan: If I find ones with a flannel pocket, I would like to make a second war model.
I’ve tried to find ones in vintage shops and checked auctions every day but I couldn’t find one at all.
Finding good vintage jeans is like ” Treasure every encounter, for it will never recur. But the chance didn’t fall on me for a long time.
I knew it’s not the best to rely too much on our friends but I decided to ask Koizumi-san, who had helped me when reproducing the No.2 Jeans, 1890s model.
But he told me, “Sorry, I don’t have one. There are only 15 flannel pocket war jeans in the world.” I was about to give up, thinking that it would be too difficult if there were only 15 pairs but a few days after I asked him he contacted me again and said, “Inoue-san, I had the opportunity to grab them!” I was like you should say your dreams and hopes out loud and they’ll come true lol. Then about the jacket. In my mind the jacket that would be suitable for the flannel pocket WW2 jeans was the one with the so-called down patch. Then, when I asked another friend, Viktor Fredback, he said he has one so I borrowed it and took it home during the Sweden visit we did in June.

The WW2 Jeans and Jackets we sampled this time are both from the late 40’s when the wartime restrictions continued and there was a serious shortage of supplies and they had no choice but to accept different materials for the pocket fabric and the skilled seamstresses were called upon to produce military uniforms and other items. And they were probably sewn by inexperienced workers. The jacket has a leather patch sewn very low with random sized box stitches and even on some parts the choice of threads is out of the standard. As for the jeans, the stitching on the back pockets look neat at first glance so it’s not very distinctive for everybody that it’s of the 40’s but if you turn them inside out it’s obvious that this is WW2 jeans because they have the flannel pocket.

When I made our S40’s silhouette, I made the dress length longer than the vintage jacket and made the armholes little tighter to make it easier to match with other clothes.
However, this time I didn’t change the silhouette from the vintage version that much and didn’t change how the armholes are attached to the shoulder.
As a result, I think the wrinkles that can happen on the chest will fade just like the vintage jacket.
(In fact, you can see the color remaining from the wrinkles at the armpits in the vintage version that I used as reference.)

I think this is a design that will make people who already have the S40’s want to add it to their collection. And also we understand that some denim fans are not a big fan of our modern jacket cut but we can recommend these new series to those people. I hope you’ll take a look at one of the 10 different looks in the 40’s that you can have with 10 pairs.