The Bakers Jacket

As many of you will be aware, the story of the Bakers Jacket goes way back to the beginning of UW and was our take on a ‘chore’ jacket, a jacket with its origins in the working classes, a garment to protect their clothing or a practical, hard-wearing piece to work in. We chose to call our jacket "Bakers" after co-founder David Keyte’s dad, a baker by trade, who wore a particular jacket to work every day. We swear we were the first to name it Bakers; where we tread, others seem to follow.

You may or may not have noticed that, over the years, we have had a few different takes on the style name: Bakers, Bakers Chore, Bakers C (a shorter title than Bakers Chore), and now the Original Bakers. Fear not, it has always been a ‘Bakers’ jacket, but why so many names?

The first Bakers we perfected was a more complicated affair due to some lovely details such as a top-stitched sleeve head dart and a centre back vent, which result in more complex pattern making and construction. Sometimes the factory or fabric cries out for less, so some of those features are removed and streamlined, necessitating a name change while still retaining the main design features such as the shape, two-piece sleeve, decorative (pocket watch) buttonhole, and multiple pockets we love so much.

We thought it would be nice to reproduce the original design with the justification, if needed, being our 15th anniversary year and re-visit the original. This season, you will find it in Broad Cloth, a lightweight, plain weave cotton, with all the details highlighted by a tonal contrast top stitch.

To hear our Co-Founder David Keyte talk more about the Bakers Jacket watch the episode of Universal Works Threads below.