The Carhartt Active Jacket is Hollywood's favorite item

The off-duty style of celebrities has become a much-discussed topic lately. In this narrative, paparazzi undoubtedly play a crucial role, delighting in capturing the outfits chosen by celebrities during their rare free moments, when they go to grab a coffee at the nearest bar. The paparazzi shots, whose task is to sell exclusive portraits to agencies or magazines, have the power to succeed in the apparent, challenging task of making a garment mainstream, giving it months of glory and making it the most desired item of all. This is what happened with the Carhartt Active Jacket, although, for the sake of accuracy, the latest VIP to wear it was Dakota Johnson on the set of the new movie with Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans, Materialists, so not exactly an off-duty situation. The Active Jacket is one of the flagship items in Carhartt's archive, and if it has become so popular, credit must be attributed to two converging forces: those of TikTokers and, indeed, celebrities. Its success also highlights a certain obsession of celebrities with vintage Carhartt items: the more torn - "distressed," to use a technical term - the better. If these items sport stains of paint, concrete, oil, or any other product used in the world of workwear - the real one where workers and mechanics are used to getting dirty during daily tasks - the garment becomes truly unique and valuable. 

The same success was experienced about three years ago by the Detroit Jacket, which remains on average the most requested (and expensive) silhouette among Carhartt's vintage pieces. Over the years, it has been worn by practically the most famous faces: Brooklyn Beckham, Kanye West, Johnny Depp; perhaps they were struck by the faded desert color of the one worn by Matthew McConaughey in Interstellar. Today, Carhartt is not limited to being the flagship of workwear but has become synonymous with luxury. The surge in demand for the company's branded garments has even prompted fashion houses like Sacai and Junya Watanabe to collaborate, a strategic choice that we would never have expected a decade ago. Regarding both the Detroit Jacket and the Active Jacket, what stands out the most is the cut: cropped for the former and puffy for the latter. Many other brands, such as Miu Miu, Valentino, and Givenchy, have delved into Carhartt's archive to faithfully reproduce a silhouette that convinces everyone. An article by GQ published a few weeks ago reported an important statement by Daniel Todd, Marketing Director of Mr. Porter: «We continue to see strong demand from the public for Carhartt items. I think this enduring appeal lies in their simplicity,» he continued: «The product is simple, classic, and well-made, and can be worn by a wide range of customers. Workwear continues to be a key trend in men's fashion.»

In short, adopting the lines used by Carhartt in its long and glorious history seems to have become the preferred shortcut for brands when it comes to creating garments that can appeal to as diverse an audience as possible. Despite every Carhartt item being rich in references to the world of hip hop (the story about Tommy Boy Record is enough to quantify the extent of the brand's impact in mainstream culture), as well as cinema, the reasons that drive celebrities to wear these must be quite different. A garment is a true extension of one's personality, a way to present oneself and appear to others, and we are certain that many of the celebrities who have worn their Carhartt Active Jacket, stained with paint, have done so to appear genuine, or better yet, "down to earth".