Wilkes Western 12 Ounce Vintage Blue Denim

Introducing Freenote Cloth’s newest signature denim in broken twill: 12 Ounce Vintage Blue. Around 9 years ago, we stumbled upon a vintage roll of selvedge with a unique pale blue color. Ever since, recreating “G.I. Blue” – the nickname we gave the original roll of fabric – has been a passion project for us. At first, we tried to find the original manufacturer, so we approached the now defunct Cone Mills White Oak. Although they couldn’t find any records of making this particular denim, they did offer some insight to its origin. Like many products in wartime, dye is often a scarce commodity. We’ve never been able to pinpoint when the denim fabric was manufactured, but it is likely that the distinct pale blue color was an invention of necessity in the midst of wartime rationing. Matching this shade of blue was no easy task, but after 8 years of trial and error, we finally have a faithful reproduction of “G.I. Blue.”