There is a version of the denim jacket that has done more damage to men’s style than almost anything else. Too stiff to move in, too pale to work with anything, boxy in a way that reads cheap rather than relaxed. Most men either keep wearing a bad one out of habit or give up on the category entirely. That’s a shame, because a well made denim jacket is one of the more quietly useful things you can own. It layers over a t-shirt in summer, under a wool coat in winter, and hits that smart casual register that a leather jacket sometimes misses. What we’ve been looking for specifically is weight and wash. The fabric needs to have some body to it, and the color needs to be considered, not just whatever the factory ran that season. These are the jackets that reward you every time you reach for them, which if the fit is right, turns out to be often.