White Jacket Revival: Reinventing a Favorite

As we’ve mentioned, the approach of our 30th Anniversary has been a time of reflection for us. We’ve been taking a mindful look at where we came from and how we got here, and it’s led us to take a walk down memory lane. Our previous collections almost serve as a road map to our journey over the last three decades, visible representations of the evolution of Double D Ranch. How we grew as a company, as a family, and as people. How our collections expanded and our aesthetic evolved. In revisiting some of those previous collections, we’ve been reminded of some of our favorite pieces, and of pieces that were best-selling favorites of yours, and it’s resulted in reinventing some of those classics in our 2020 designs. That is how the Heritage Head Jacket came to be.

Last week we told you how the denim flag jacket in Willie’s Picnic was a reimagination of one of Double D’s most beloved, most collected, and most sought-after items ever, the original denim jacket with the hand-dyed wool American flag on the back from our very first spring collection in 1991. While the creative spark behind the Heritage Head Jacket doesn’t date back nearly as far, it was definitely derived from one of our most popular pieces.

“When you hit a decade milestone, whether as a business or a person, I think it’s natural to look back,” Cheryl said. “You evaluate what you’re proud of and what you would take back, what worked in your favor and what didn’t. There is a white leather jacket that we created years ago that has been by and far our most pinned item on Pinterest, the most shared on social media, the most commented on, and that was the Freedom Rider Jacket. It was a beautiful jacket, and it really resonated with people, still does to this day. Oh, and it’s also been the most knocked off - that’s when you know you’ve really made something good!”

But we digress. The point is, people love that jacket. So we gave it new life for Willie’s Picnic.

“Just like the flag jacket, we updated it a little, especially in terms of silhouette,” Cheryl said. “It’s a little more angular, more tailored, and it’s meant to be worn open. I mean, who’s zipping up a leather jacket in the summer? And the three-quarter sleeves, I love that component, it gives the illusion of pushed up sleeves without the bulk. We stayed true to what we felt were the key elements: the image of the chief, the patriotic coloring, and the overall American spirit of it all.”

What we put on it was important, sure, but what we put it ON perhaps mattered most.

“The white aged and crackled leather,” Cheryl explained. “That was absolutely essential. I think that’s maybe THE thing that sets it apart. It’s just not something you see that often, I think a lot of designers are scared of it; white is a traditional summer color and leather is a traditionally winter medium, and not everyone has the luxury of faith that their target audience is brave enough to buck the norm. But that’s the beauty of our customers: they live to dress outside the box, to make a statement, to turn heads, and to know no one else is showing up to the party in the same outfit as theirs. I think it affords us the ability to take more risks, and this one worked, then and now.”