My Denim Jacket Collection

You know how sometimes when you love a piece of clothing, you buy it in multiple colors? When I was just out of college and I’d find a shirt I liked at a great price, you’d better believe I’d buy 2 or 3 of them and rotate them until they wore out.

Nowadays, I try not to do that because I’ve found that for me some of the magic of that one fabulous piece of clothing gets diluted when I have multiple versions.

However, when it comes to denim jackets, the more the merrier!

Fun fact: I actually wasn’t a big fan of denim jackets on me until probably the last 5 years. I wear a lot of jeans in my casual time, so the idea of doing the denim-on-denim combo was just not my thing. However, as I’ve gotten more into skirts and dresses, I’ve realized how wonderful a *special* denim jacket can be.

Even better, every single one of my denim jackets in my collection was bought secondhand!

Let’s check them out:

Denim Jacket #1: The classic denim jacket

This one is the most classic denim jacket in my closet, as it is a medium wash with no adornments. The brand is Pilcro and the Letterpress, which is Anthropologie’s ‘exclusive premium denim’ brand. I bought this at a consignment shop and I paid $25 for it. The casual, slouchy fit of this jacket makes it a great topper for pretty much anything and if you have to choose just one denim jacket for your closet, I’d go with one like this!

Denim Jacket #2: An artsy jacket

I picked up this dark blue denim jacket at the thrift store for just $15 and immediately decided to customize it for a fun artsy look. I bought a couple Kantha scarves off Poshmark, picked all my favorite bits, and custom sewed the back of this jacket completed with a little added embroidery (you can see the full process here) It turned out really cute and since it is such a dark blue this one is easy to pair with a medium wash pair of jeans, or any of the skirts and dresses in my closet.

Denim Jacket #3: A railroad stripe jacket

From far away, this jacket looks like a light blue… but once you get a little closer it is actually a railroad stripe, which is so fun.

This one is another Pilcro and the Letterpress jacket, by way of Poshmark. When I bought it, I bundled it with a pair of boots and only paid $40 for the whole order. If you’re in the market to add something similar to your wardrobe, I highly recommend doing a Poshmark search: for example, I would search by Anthropologie as the brand and then further refine down to ‘denim jacket’ before sorting by price (low to high) to see what treasures appear. This one has a bit of a higher back hem, so it looks extra cute with dresses.

Denim Jacket #4: A vintage embroidered jacket

This one was my most expensive secondhand denim jacket purchase, at $60. It’s a ‘vintage’ jacket with some super fabulous and intricate embroidery and I just became super obsessed with it before we went on our trip to Universal Studios earlier this year. The flowers give it such a fun look and it looks so great with a more casual t-shirt and skirt combo or a plainer dress look.

Denim Jacket #5: A shoulder studded jacket

This was another art project for me, as I was looking for a very plain denim jacket to customize with some spikes and sparkles. I found this one for just $8 and bought a pack of metal studs of Amazon to jazz the shoulders up a bit. It just adds a little extra fun to an otherwise plain jacket. Honestly, this one could probably be donated because I don’t wear it very often with my other more exciting denim options… but it’s not really taking up much space and the cost was very low, so it’s sticking around for now.

Denim Jacket #6: A beaded and sequin jacket

I guess this would count as my ‘fanciest’ denim jacket, with the mix of beads and sequins. The brand is Coldwater Creek and I thrifted this one for $10. The denim is a little more structured and while it does have a lot of pizazz going on, the colors are pretty subtle and neutral. This one gives me more fall/winter vibes (due to the colors and acorns), so I like it as topper to heavier fabrics and velvet.

Final Thoughts

If I had to rate them all, I’d say my favorites in order of most to least are the classic denim, the railroad denim, the vintage embroidered and then my artsy Kantha jacket. The ones that get the least wears from me are the shoulder studded jacket and the beaded/sequin jacket. Since I’m continuously looking at my closet with an editing eye, I’ll make a note in my phone that if I don’t reach for my last favorite options within the next 3-6 months, they’re getting added to my Poshmark closet.

And just for fun, here are a bunch of my denim jacket looks: