The Double Face Hoodie
May 29th, 2024
Not to be confused with the thermal hoodie - the double face hooded sweatshirt is one of my favorite items of clothing. Who doesn’t like a substantial, thicc hoodie? As we here in the subtropics are being thrown headfirst into 99% humidity and 35°C weather (love weather chat) - I find myself reminiscing colder, dryer climates. If you are somewhat into clothing, you would probably agree that you can only really start dressing once the temperature dips.
The double face hoodie is a hooded sweatshirt that consists of two layers of the same weight fabric both on the inside and outside of the hoodie - hence the name “double face”. The color of each layer can be the same or different - depends on the model and manufacturer. One of the most famous examples of a double face hoodie is from none other than Champion.
You can imagine how warm and toasty these Princeton jocks must have been if they were wearing this. Other notable details of the time period include separate pockets, after-hoods (where the sweater would appear to be a crewneck with the hood stitched on), flat unfinished seams around the hood and so on. You can really nerd out on this shit and hoodies have known to fetch astronomical prices online.
I myself have accumulated a few double face hoodies - why else would I be writing about them? I’m not a poser… But the thing is (and I found this out the hard way), people back then were small. I remember purchasing a hoodie from Japan thinking it would fit me a certain way judging from the pit-to-pit measurements. It ended up making me look like I was wearing a kid’s sweater. The sleeves hit the middle of my forearms and the shoulders were extremely snug. The hoodie itself was dated to around the 50’s - 60’s. I luckily managed to sell it to another collector and made a decent amount of money off of it.
To make up for this gutting loss - I ended up purchasing a Russell hoodie that was also double face. The fit was much better - I guess people in the 80’s got bigger.
The younger cousin of the double face - the thermal hoodie, is a result of a little fabric R&D. As these garments were primarily used for athletic training, companies like Champion, Sears, Discus, Russell, etc. were out to develop a lighter fabric while retaining warmth properties. The thermal fabric is a result of this and became the widely accepted fabric of choice when developing cold weather, cotton-based garments.
As we propel into the present and see a nice rekindled interest in vintage all across the board - more and more brands are starting to sample and produce the thick hoodie. But I’m gonna go out on a limb and say Kanye and Yeezy did it best. Sorry!
Image sources: Trim’s Vintage, eBay, Lightning Archives