Why is Jacob Elordi’s Carhartt Detroit Jacket the real star of The Dog Stars?
An ordinary work jacket becomes The Dog Stars’ breakout fashion moment, as Jacob Elordi turns Carhartt workwear into a menswear obsession
The clothes most likely to become fashion objects are often the ones that look least like fashion. Of course, movie costumes can be spectacular, with perfect suits, futuristic gear, and designer gowns. But the pieces that linger in your memory are often more ordinary: a pair of worn-in jeans, a faded T-shirt, a beat-up pair of boots or a work jacket. Put the right actor in the right “normal” piece in the right movie, and it stops being normal. Suddenly, everyone wants it.
That’s exactly what’s happening with Jacob Elordi’s jacket in Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars. Set in a world ravaged by a pandemic, the movie follows Hig, a pilot and mechanic, as he tries to survive in isolation with his dog Jasper and the fiercely pragmatic Bangley, played by Josh Brolin.
The wardrobe is nothing like the glossy sci-fi looks usually associated with the genre. There’s no futuristic armour, luxury label, or exaggerated apocalypse cosplay in sight. Just clothes that look like they could actually make it through the end of the world.
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What Jacket Does Jacob Elordi Wear in The Dog Stars?
At the centre of Hig’s wardrobe is a Carhartt Detroit Jacket, one of the most recognisable silhouettes in American workwear. Designed as a practical work jacket, the Detroit has spent decades moving far beyond the factory floor, becoming a favourite of vintage collectors, streetwear fans, and fashion people who appreciate clothes with a little history.
Jacob Elordi wears a moss-green version, known among Carhartt enthusiasts as MOS, paired with light-wash jeans and brown leather boots. That’s basically the entire outfit, and that’s precisely why it works. The jacket is boxy, sturdy, and understated: it doesn’t look styled.
And on Elordi, that’s a very powerful combination. The Australian actor has become one of Hollywood’s most closely watched menswear stars, but in The Dog Stars he doesn’t look like a celebrity being styled for a role. He looks like Hig. The jacket feels like something he has owned for years, something he would wear whether cameras were around or not.
Jacob Elordi’s Carhartt Detroit jacket in Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars reveals the secret of great costume design: you should see the character, not the costume.
Why Fashion Fell for Carhartt’s Detroit Jacket
The irony of the Detroit Jacket becoming a fashion obsession is that it was never intended to be fashionable: it was built for function.
Fashion has been obsessed with utility, vintage workwear and clothes that look better with age. People crave pieces that feel authentic rather than overly polished, and a Carhartt jacket makes a compelling promise: wear me, use me, get me dirty. I’ll be fine.
That makes perfect sense in The Dog Stars. In Hig’s world, clothing has to earn its place. There are no shopping malls, no seasonal drops, and no endless supply chains. If a jacket keeps you warm and holds up to whatever you throw at it, you keep wearing it.
The irony is that the more practical the jacket looks, the more fashionable it becomes.
J97 or JB104? The Carhartt Detroit Jacket Mystery Behind Jacob Elordi’s Patch
Then things get seriously nerdy. Carhartt collectors quickly noticed that the exact jacket worn by Elordi isn’t quite as straightforward as it first appears. The movie version seems to combine details associated with different vintage Detroit Jacket models, particularly the J97 and JB104.
The J97 is known for its leatherette Carhartt patch, while the JB104 features the fabric patch seen on Elordi’s jacket. This has sparked speculation that the movie jacket is a vintage piece with a replaced or swapped patch. In other words, the jacket may be something of a Carhartt Frankenstein.
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For most people, that detail is trivial. For vintage collectors, it’s catnip.
That uncertainty is part of the fun of vintage menswear. Once you start looking closely, the seemingly simple work jacket opens up to reveal model numbers, colours, production eras, patches, and construction details. Suddenly, “I want Jacob Elordi’s jacket” becomes “I need to figure out exactly which Detroit Jacket this is.”
The Dog Stars Turns Workwear Into Apocalypse Style
There’s something almost perfect about a work jacket becoming the breakout fashion item in a post-apocalyptic movie. The Dog Stars is about survival, isolation, and figuring out what matters when almost everything else is gone. The Carhartt Detroit Jacket fits that world because it does not attempt to be anything other than what it is: a really good jacket, with no armour, tactical gear, or futuristic flourishes. That’s why everyone wants one.
Fashion is always looking for the next big thing, which gives a decades-old jacket a special appeal. It’s durable, useful, and only looks better once it has been worn in. Jacob Elordi did not invent the cool work jacket; he reminded everyone why it was cool in the first place.
The Carhartt Detroit Jacket can survive the apocalypse; now it has to survive the hype.
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