TCB Jeans_Sing Sing Cabaret Jacket

TCB has recently acquired what is believed to be a prison uniform from the 1940s. The moment I saw the large stencil on the back, my eyes were drawn to the words "SING SING" inscribed alongside a prison number.

At first, I thought it meant "to sing," but upon investigation, I discovered it referred to the real **Sing Sing Prison** in New York State. I realized I had heard the name before: it’s mentioned at the beginning of *Breakfast at Tiffany's*, starring Audrey Hepburn.

“I’ve always thought that was such a funny name for a prison. Sing Sing. Sounds like an opera house.”
In English, she says “opera house,” but in the Japanese subtitles, it is translated as:
“Sing Sing—sounds like a cabaret.”
That translation, “sounds like a cabaret,” left a strange impression on me.

While discussing this with RYO, he said:
“Then, why not make it ‘SING SING CABARET’?”
After the war, American sewing machines were imported to Japan, and domestic jeans began to be manufactured. Around that time, the film was translated into Japanese, and perhaps because the term was unfamiliar in the cultural context of the day, it was translated as “cabaret.” As a brand like TCB, which pursues traditional craftsmanship, I found myself drawn to the stencil of “SING SING CABARET”—a name we chose specifically because we are a Japanese brand.

Cabaret = a place of expression.
Prison uniform = a symbol of constraints and rules.
I thought this combination of conflicting images was quintessentially TCB.

Observing the vintage prison uniform I actually acquired, I found it fascinating. The world of workwear is always governed by “efficiency for sales” and “the battle against costs,” but this prison uniform was **“clothing not intended for sale”** in the first place.

The seams weren’t lapped, nor were they overlocked.
They were simply joined from the inside and stitched together with a single run of thread. I struggled with how we should approach this at TCB, but in the end, we decided to intentionally use that same single-stitch construction, leaving the seam allowances to fray. It retains a real “roughness” that allows you to feel the atmosphere of the time.

The same goes for the design.
There are no pockets at all, so that items cannot be hidden.
I thought that might be a bit inconvenient for life outside prison walls today, so at TCB, we added pockets.

The cuffs are also very wide, about 19cm.
Perhaps this was also to prevent the hiding of contraband. I was hesitant to change this, but prioritized the silhouette and ease of daily wear, adjusting the width so you don’t have to worry about getting them dirty while eating.

Another thing that struck me was the “pattern matching.”
Despite the rough construction overall, the front placket and stripes were strangely well-aligned. I observed it thinking, “They were careful only in this part”—only to realize that the body panels were actually a single piece, connected front and back. Naturally, the patterns aligned (laughs).

Ultimately, it is a jacket made with a surprisingly simple construction of one body piece, two sleeve pieces, and one collar piece. Yes, it is clothing “made not to be sold, but to be worn.”

For TCB, which has customers all over the world, this project is more than just a reproduction. Through the subject of a “prison uniform,” it is an attempt to reinterpret universal themes—freedom, responsibility, and identity—as fashion.

Just like denim, uniforms hold “the evidence of a life lived.”
TCB believes this to be true.
That is why we want to release this garment to the world not as a negative symbol, but as a positive message that symbolizes “the strength to seek freedom.”

□ Fabric
The fabric for the SING SING Cabaret Jacket was custom-made specifically for this project.
In fact, it is used cross-grain. In its roll state, it is a vertical striped fabric. We intentionally cut it horizontally so that it ends up as a border pattern.

This is only possible because the fabric is a **duck (plain weave)**, which looks natural even when used this way.
10 count warp × 16 count weft, approximately 10 ounces.
It has a soft texture while being tightly woven.

We used high-quality Zimbabwean cotton as the raw material, but our goal was not “high quality,” but the rough texture that was issued to prisoners back then.
Therefore, we adopted highly irregular slub yarn, which we don’t usually use for TCB jeans. Its wild yet warm expression truly reproduces the realism of that era.

Regarding the vintage border (navy) portion, I initially wondered:
“Could this be indigo-dyed?”
However, if it were indigo, there would have been color transfer to the ecru areas.
For that reason, we recreated the navy this time using **reactive dyeing (cheese dyeing)**.

Reprinted from the official TCB website

A rather eccentric item has arrived.

It’s an item that takes some courage to wear, but I encourage you to give it a try.

The sleeves are quite wide, so you might want to roll them up. I think it could be interesting to use it as an accent for layering.

Actual size chart: in cm