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Beautiful Struggles College Jacket Purple
The varsity jacket is having something of a moment in 2022. As prep-focused styles begin to see a resurgence, the look’s most covetable jacket is the easiest way to stand out. This has meant that just about every apparel brand out there has featured some kind of varsity jacket style in recent collections.
The Beautiful Struggles College Jacket delivers the traditional, buttoned-up varsity jacket in a slightly more relaxed and oversized styling. Limited to just 200 units, the single colourway of the jacket immediately stands out, presenting a luxurious purple body featuring a college-style Beautiful Struggles “BS” logo on its chest. From there, the jacket takes its design in a slightly less traditional direction, featuring several embroidered graffiti-like designs on the front and back. On the front chest, opposite the orange Beautiful Struggles logo, is a Basquiat-like crown, embroidered in white, and on the back of the jacket.
Look 1: The 90s
In the 90s, the varsity jacket became one of the essential pieces of the hip-hop movement (I bet you’re picturing 2Pac, right?). This moment in time inspired this first look. There’s no need to be a copycat, so we keep it casual. With a beanie on the head instead of a snapback, we keep it simple with a white t-shirt and baggy style wide-leg trousers and, obviously, as hip-hop demand,s we match it with a pair of Air Force 1s. This pair is a bit special though – it’s the Odell Beckham Jr. Noise Cancelling Pack.
Get the Look
Supreme Yohji Yamamoto New Era Beanie Orange Juice Wrld x Vlone Butterfly T-shirt White
Palace Baggies Jean Pale Stonewash
Nike Air Force 1 Low Noise Cancelling Pack Odell Beckham Jr
Get the Look: The 90s… But in 2022
The second look is a transition to the next. The spirit is the same as the previous one. It’s so similar that I’m wearing a hoodie and I’ve swapped the pair of Air Force 1s for a pair of Chuck Taylors. With varsity jacket colours, nothing stops you from being a little madder than me and trying to match the colours of the hoodie and shoes with the varsity jacket colour or one of many matches. On the other hand, it’s subtle but we modernise the profile. Under the hoodie? A long white t-shirt to shape the profile. The baggy trousers from the first look are replaced with woollen trousers.
Get the Look
New Era x Takashi Murakami Flower Allover Basic Cuff Knit BeanieBlack
Yeezy x GAP Hoodie Black
Off-White Tape Longsleeve T-Shirt White
Telfar x UGG Sweatpants Trousers Black
Look 3: The Ivy League Look
The last look is a counterpoint. In the 1930s and 1940s, the varsity jacket (or teddy) was an essential piece of the “Ivy League” or “original Preppy” style. Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Yale… the casual and chic style is widely adopted by American students on American campuses that are synonymous with the social elite: the Ivy League. The Ivy League style is made of a few essential pieces, including the varsity jacket, blazer, white shirt, chinos and moccasins. With this look, I kept the spirit but I turned it towards the “designer” and my converse shoes in collaboration with Rick Owens. The varsity jacket, the scarf and the cap are very useful to brighten the dark profile and balance the volume of the bottom part.
Get the Look
Supreme Jean Paul Gaultier Pinstripe Double Breasted Blazer Black
Supreme Jean Paul Gaultier Pinstripe Cargo Suit Pant Black
Converse TURBODRK Chuck Taylor All-Star 70 OxRick Owens DRKSHDW White
I could have played it “Fresh Prince”, but I think we’re already pretty much there. So, challenge met?