JOURNAL STANDARD relume Turns Down the Distressing on Its Cult Double-Face Hoodie

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A layering piece that built a following over several seasons returns this October with a calmer finish and the same three-season range.

JOURNAL STANDARD relume has confirmed its Double Face Waffle Zip Hoodie for a late October release as part of the label’s 2026 fall/winter lineup, according to a Japan market release notice. The piece is not a new idea. It is a direct update of a double-face zip hoodie that relume has run through its catalog across earlier seasons and that built a following through word of mouth and repeat sellouts rather than a marketing push. The new version keeps the construction that made the original work and adjusts the one thing shoppers seemed split on: how hard the fabric had been treated to look worn in.

It arrives as one piece within a wider fall rollout relume has staggered across the back half of the year. Separate Japan market release notices have tracked a run of lamb, goat, and buffalo leather jackets arrive in mid-September, followed by a smoky-denim zip jacket and wide-leg pant pairing set for mid-October, with the waffle hoodie closing out the sequence in late October. Read together, the pattern looks less like a single drop and more like a brand pacing its outerwear and layering pieces across the season rather than releasing them all at once.

 

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The hoodie’s defining trait sits in its name. “Double face” describes a construction where two different fabrics are laminated together into a single panel, so the garment behaves like two pieces of clothing stitched into one. On the outward-facing side, relume uses a cotton loopback sweat fabric, chosen for its moderate weight and soft hand feel against the skin. Backing it is a waffle-knit fabric, the same textured weave familiar from thermal underlayers, which adds both insulation and a view ridged texture that shows at the cuffs, hem, and hood lining.

The previous edition of this hoodie, still listed through JOURNAL STANDARD relume‘s official retail channel, describes the effect plainly: the waffle backing gives the garment volume and warmth without the stiffness of a heavier fleece, while the loopback face keeps the outer hand soft enough to wear directly against a Tee. In-house staff notes on that listing describe the fit as relaxed through the body with a shorter, cleaner hem, and call out the waffle lining specifically for feeling lighter against the skin than its visual bulk suggests. A drop-shoulder cut adds room through the body and sleeve without pushing the sil into full oversized territory, and a double-zip front, meaning two zip pulls that can meet anywhere along the track, lets the wearer decide how open or closed the piece sits. Fully unzipped, it drapes like a light cardigan. Zipped to the collar, it closes into a proper hooded pullover.

 

That double-zip detail is doing more work than it looks. Because the puller can stop partway, the hoodie can be worn open over a shirt as a topper, zipped halfway as a loose layer over a T-shirt, or closed all the way as a stand-alone piece in colder weather, all without changing garments. It is the kind of detail that reads as a small thing in a product description and becomes the reason a piece gets worn on repeat. On the prior model, a size medium measured out to roughly 54.5cm across the shoulders, 60cm across the chest, 58.5cm in body length, and 60.5cm along the sleeve, with a size large adding roughly half a centimeter to a centimeter across each of those measurements, numbers that put the fit closer to a relaxed, slightly boxy cut than a fitted layer.

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Where the new edition breaks from its predecessor is in finishing, not construction. The earlier version of this hoodie leaned hard into a distressed, vintage-inspired surface treatment, an airbrush bleaching process applied after the garment was assembled, which pulled color unevenly out of the fabric to mimic years of fading and wear. The effect gave every unit a slightly different, ash-toned finish, closer in spirit to a thrifted sweatshirt than a new release, and it is part of what built the piece’s reputation. Shoppers who wanted something that looked lived-in from the first wear responded to it, and relume’s own retail listing for that version leans into the description, framing the fading as the kind of character that usually only comes from years of actual wear.

The 2026 fall/winter update dials that treatment back. Per the release notice, the new version is finished with a noticeably lighter hand on the vintage processing, aim for a cleaner and more grown-up result that still reads as consider rather than brand-new-out-of-the-bag stiff, but without the heavy fade of the prior run. It is a small adjustment on paper and a real one in practice: the same sil and fabric pairing now reads less like a thrifted find and more like something a shopper could wear to work under a coat without a second thought.

This is a fairly common move for a repeat style. A brand identifies which parts of a design are doing the commercial work, here the double-face warmth and the flex double zip, and keeps those fixed while treat the finish as the seasonal vary It lets relume reissue a proven outline without simply reprint last season’s product, and it gives return customers a reason to consider the piece again even if they already own an earlier version.

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The rel notice frames the garment’s appeal around its ability to move across a longer stretch of the calendar than a typical hooded sweatshirt manages. Early in autumn and again in early spring, the thickness of the double-face panel is enough to function as a light outer layer on its own, worn over a Tee with nothing else needed. Deeper into winter, the same piece shifts roles and works as a mid-layer, tucked under a coat or jacket where its waffle backing adds warmth without adding bulk that would crowd an outer shell.

That range is the practical argument for a piece like this existing in a brand’s lineup at all. A hoodie that can only function indoors, or only function as a base layer, has a narrower window of use than one built to flex between roles. relume’s own product language for the line leans on this point directly, describing the piece as a reliable option across a long season rather than a single-purpose item tied to one specific kind of weather.

The care specifications carried over from the prior model give some sense of how the fabric is meant to be treated at home. The listing calls for gentle machine washing and flags several expected traits of a garment finished this way: some pilling and fuzzing over time, gradual fading, minor shrinkage after repeated washes, and color variation between panels as a built-in feature of the dyeing process rather than a defect. None of that is unusual for a heavily processed cotton knit, but it does mean the hoodie is designed to keep evolving after purchase rather than staying fixed at the finish it ships in, a detail that lines up with relume’s description of the earlier version’s fading as something closer to character than wear and tear.

JOURNAL STANDARD relume

昨シーズン大人気だったTAION別注ミリタリーダウンジャケットに、新色ベージュが加わって登場！#レリューム#タイオン

— ベイクルーズ グループ（公式） (@BAYCREWS_JP) September 10, 2026

The colorway lineup carries over from the design lang of the previous rel rather than depart from it. Earlier seasons of this hoodie were offered in black, navy, and red, each finished with the same airbrush treatment so that even the darker colorways carried a view, uneven fade rather than a flat, uniform dye. Whether the new, lighter-processed version keeps that exact color range has not been confirmed indie of the rel notice, and any changes to the lineup will only be verifiable once the piece appears on relume’s own retail list ahead of the late October launch.

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JOURNAL STANDARD relume’s Double Face Waffle Zip Hoodie is set for rel in late October 2026, priced at 14,850 yen according to the rel notice, positioning it slight above where the prior version’s original retail price sat, a different of a few hundred yen rather than a meaningful repositioning of the piece within relume’s pricing tier. The earlier edition, still tracked through relume’s official retail channel under a separate product listing, launched at 14,300 yen in black, navy, and red across M and L sizing, with a face of 100 percent cotton, a waffle backing blended with a small percentage of polyurethane for stretch, and construction handled overseas.

Specific sizing, colorway confirmation, and retail availability for the October rel had not been published to relume’s own retail channels at the time of writing, since the list window for a late-month release typically opens closer to the date itself. The earlier, heavily treated version, by contrast, is already deep into its own clearance cycle: relume’s official retail channel currently lists it at 40 percent off its original price, sold out across every color and both sizes online, which suggests the predecessor has largely run its course through in-season stock ahead of the update taking its place.