--- title: "The Chore Coat Was Built for Men Who Worked" url: https://quietmenace.com/style/chore-coat-french-work-jacket/ author: Quiet Menace Editors section: Style published: 2026-10-29 updated: 2026-10-29 topics: Workwear, Menswear History, Wardrobe Essentials, Outerwear --- # The Chore Coat Was Built for Men Who Worked > French laborers wore it boxy, blue and patched at the elbow. Menswear adopted it as the jacket you reach for once you're done with blazers. Rue de Bretonvilliers is a short street on the Île Saint-Louis, the smaller of the two islands in the Seine at the center of Paris. In 1927 a man named Edouard Beerens opened a workshop at number 3 to make clothes for factory hands and manual laborers. His mother had given him her apron and overalls atelier as a wedding present. He called the business Vetra, a contraction of vêtements de travail, and drew a red label with the outline of a factory on it. Vetra is still a family company, and the jacket it cut for men who worked with their hands now sells in menswear shops to men who mostly type. That jacket goes by a few names. The French one is the most useful. ## Work blues In France it is the bleu de travail, work blue, and the name describes the color as much as the garment. As [Permanent Style](https://www.permanentstyle.com/2024/06/bleu-de-travail-workwear.html) tells it, the blue was first a military color, and by the nineteenth century the dye had become cheap enough that manufacturers used a lighter version on workers' clothing. Mechanics, carpenters, farmhands and railwaymen all wore some version of it. The design hardly varies from maker to maker. The jacket is cut straight and roomy so a man can swing a hammer, falls to the hip, and has a plain collar with patch pockets at the chest and hips. There is no shoulder padding and no tailoring trickery. Some workers kept a black one with a collar for church on Sunday, the same jacket in its going-out color. Chore coat is the American name for the same idea, a term from the early twentieth century and the big US workwear houses like Carhartt and Dickies. If the American side interests you, our history of [Carhartt WIP's jump from workwear to streetwear](https://quietmenace.com/style/carhartt-wip-workwear-to-streetwear/) picks up that thread. The French version is lighter and plainer, which is exactly why menswear prefers it. ## Two French makers still at it Vetra lasted because it never stopped serving the job. Its jackets went first to specialist stores and to industrial companies buying for their staff, and in 1939 the workshop was turning out uniforms for the French army. Some of the sewing was done at home by workers who took cut cloth away from the shop. Fashion buyers arrived much later. Today the range runs in cotton drill and a washed dungaree twill, in blue of course, plus pearl, red and anthracite versions for people who want the cut without the reference. Le Laboureur, which translates as the ploughman, was founded in 1956 in Digoin, a small town in Burgundy. It started with clothing for agricultural workers and later moved into gear for the building trades. Its founder, Primo Zelanti, was an Italian immigrant who started out selling work clothes at markets in southern Burgundy. His son Jean-Charles runs the business now, still from Digoin, and in 2020 the company made a capsule of canvas work jackets with Junya Watanabe. That last name tells you how far the ploughman's jacket has traveled. Watanabe came up under Rei Kawakubo, and our profile of [Comme des Garçons](https://quietmenace.com/style/comme-des-garcons-rei-kawakubo/) explains why that house treats a farm jacket as seriously as a gown. ![A wall display of indigo dyed fabric squares in different shades of blue](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1778084356053-40103587d24f?w=1600&h=1067&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) *Blue cotton never fades the same way twice, which is most of the appeal of an old work jacket. Photo by Jimmy Liu on Unsplash* ## Why did menswear fall for it? Because it solved a problem. Through the 2010s men were looking for a jacket that sat between a blazer and a hoodie, something with structure that didn't read as office wear. The chore coat has a collar and buttons, so it looks deliberate. It has no canvas, no lining and no pretense, so it looks relaxed. It costs a fraction of good tailoring and it does most of the same work. It also ages in public. Blue cotton fades first at the elbows, the pocket edges and the collar points, and after a few years of washing a cheap jacket looks better than an expensive new one. That's the same instinct behind [raw selvedge denim](https://quietmenace.com/style/raw-denim-selvedge-guide/), the pleasure of a garment that records how you live. One reader in the comments under that Permanent Style piece said heavy linen is lovely but cotton ages better, and anyone who owns both will probably agree. ## How it should fit Buy it as a layer. The jacket should button over an [oxford cloth button-down](https://quietmenace.com/style/oxford-cloth-button-down-history/) or a medium crewneck sweater without the fabric pulling between buttons. If it only closes over a T-shirt, it's a size too small. Boxy is correct. These jackets were cut big for range of movement, and sizing down to make one look slim ruins the drape and strains the shoulders. If the body is genuinely too wide, a tailor can take in the side seams a little. Leave the shoulders alone. Length should land at the hip, roughly halfway down the seat. Vintage pieces often run short on tall men, and a good alteration shop can let down the hem a couple of centimeters if there is fabric turned under. Sleeves should reach the wrist bone with the arms relaxed. Longer is fine, since the cuffs look good rolled once. Then wash it. A work jacket that has never been through a machine looks like a costume. Cold water, line dry, repeat for a few years. ## What to wear it with The easiest version is the one French workers would recognize. Blue jacket, a [plain white T-shirt](https://quietmenace.com/style/white-t-shirt-history/), olive fatigues or gray work trousers, and a pair of beaten-up boots or [Converse Chuck Taylors](https://quietmenace.com/sneakers/converse-chuck-taylor-history/). Wearing a different shade of blue denim underneath works too, as long as the two blues don't try to match. To dress it up, borrow from tailoring. Gray flannel trousers, a knit tie or an open collar, and [penny loafers](https://quietmenace.com/style/penny-loafer-bass-weejuns-history/) turn a work jacket into something you can wear to dinner in a city that doesn't care about blazers. The pale and charcoal versions handle this even better. A full bleu de travail set, jacket and matching trousers, is a commitment. Walk around the Marais in one and people will assume you either repair bicycles or design furniture. Our [Le Marais style guide](https://quietmenace.com/travel/paris-le-marais-style-guide/) covers the neighborhood where both kinds of men shop. More work clothing lives on our [workwear hub](https://quietmenace.com/topics/workwear/) and across the [Style section](https://quietmenace.com/style/). Plenty of French workwear labels of that era were printed in red, often read as a nod to the working-class emblem. Check the label on a new Vetra jacket. Beerens's little red factory is still there. --- Filed under: [Workwear](https://quietmenace.com/topics/workwear/), [Menswear History](https://quietmenace.com/topics/menswear-history/), [Wardrobe Essentials](https://quietmenace.com/topics/wardrobe-essentials/), [Outerwear](https://quietmenace.com/topics/outerwear/) Hero image: Photo by Minh Đức on Unsplash (Unsplash License)