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The Worker Shanghai Forever Jacket: The Piece That Started It All
- Félicie
- Jun 12
- 4 min read
I have always loved workwear. Military surplus stores — in Paris, the United States, Japan — I used to hang around them from adolescence. It's a taste my parents passed on to me: the idea that you find the most beautiful things, clothes and objects alike, where no one is trying to make fashion or beauty, but simply to make things that are useful first.
So when I moved to Shanghai, I immediately noticed this "worker" jacket. Blue, khaki or grey, somewhere between a blouson and a shirt, solid, with its patch pockets. The one worn by repairmen, street sweepers, the city's behind-the-scenes workers. I must have walked past it hundreds of times without ever really stopping — and yet, I always thought it was cool.
One day, the idea came to me: what if I customised it?
The Making of the First Worker Jacket
I bought one in a hardware shop and went to an embroidery workshop to add a few elements. An Art Deco building — that architectural legacy from the 1930s that people who have never set foot in Shanghai often know nothing about, yet which is everywhere in the city's landscape. The tiger, which was to become the brand's emblem. The word Shanghai in vintage typography, in the spirit of the 60s-70s objects you still find at flea markets — on travel bags, glasses, postcards from that era... And finally Forever, in a more eighties typeface, with a slight 80s car-tuning feel — a direct nod to Shanghai Forever, the legendary bicycle brand founded in 1951, which ruled the streets of the city in the 1960s-70s and whose logo adorned thousands of frames across China.
Below are the different stages of its creation, from inspiration to the first, very handmade prototype...
It was this jacket, which I designed in 2020 — stuck in China during Covid — the Worker Shanghai Forever, that became one of Voyageuses Paris's bestsellers. Not a piece designed from scratch. An existing piece, reinterpreted, personalised, marked in my own way to express my love for Shanghai. Exactly how I would go on working.
Why Workwear?
There is a quality in workwear that contemporary fashion often tries to imitate but never quite manages to achieve: honesty. A worker's jacket was designed to last, to move, to endure. Its cut is clean because it has to be — not for aesthetic reasons, but out of necessity. No excess, no unnecessary ornamentation. Just impeccable construction.
This isn't nostalgia or a passing trend. It's a conviction I've held for a long time, inherited from all those hours spent in surplus stores, looking for pieces that were made to serve — and that, for exactly that reason, never go out of style.
With Voyageuses Paris, the idea isn't to copy the worker's uniform, but to extract what makes it timeless — and add a little something extra: an embroidery, a symbol, a story.
The Worker Jacket That Led to an Entire Collection
From the Worker Shanghai Forever jacket came a simple idea: clothes designed for a function have a cut and a solidity that "decorative" fashion struggles to match. All it takes is a reinterpretation — and an embroidery.
This is the principle that shaped the entire Vestiaire Collection: the Tiger and Dragon embroidered jumpsuits, the officer collar shirts and dresses, the New Worker jacket. Every piece starts from the same place — a workwear garment or a uniform — reinterpreted for a contemporary woman who doesn't want to choose between character and elegance.
The Worker Shanghai Forever is the original piece. The one I keep because it explains everything else.
How to Style It
The worker jacket wears like any jacket — but with that little extra soul that the embroidery brings.
With jeans and a white t-shirt: the obvious choice. The workwear cut does all the work; the tiger embroidery is enough to make the look.
Over a dress: it brings that off-beat quality that a classic blazer or denim jacket simply wouldn't.
While travelling: lightweight, hardwearing, with pockets that actually work. And enough character to stand out wherever you go.
The Jackets in the Collection Today
Worker "Shanghai Forever" embroidered jacket — €75 The original piece. An authentic Chinese worker's uniform jacket, embroidered with a tiger and an Art Deco tower on the left pocket. Limited stock — by definition a piece that depends on surplus supply.→ View product
Women's embroidered Tiger worker jacket — €130 In the spirit of the Worker, but with a more refined cut. The tiger embroidery on the heart side — discreet.→ View product
New Worker jacket with Tiger embroidery — €210 The contemporary, structured version — more fashion-forward yet still timeless. Quilted thick cotton, 4 pockets, press-stud fastening. Available in navy denim and beige cotton. A jacket that will last for years.→ View product
The Worker Shanghai Forever jacket isn't just the first piece in the Vestiaire collection. It's the explanation for why Voyageuses Paris exists — a taste inherited from my parents, years spent wandering flea markets, and a city, Shanghai, that taught me to look differently at what people wear in the street.
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