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L.A. brand Life/After/Denim makes the perfect guy’s-guy jacket

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For guys, finding a jacket that walks the line between fashion-forward and manly can be a tricky prospect. Get too jazzy, and you risk looking fey. Too rugged, and you fall off the style spectrum (ditch the Carhartt coats, boys).

Enter the refined (but affordable) military jacket -- as designed by Life/After/Denim, a new L.A.-based brand launched by designers Michael Choi and Alexis Frey.

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The brand, which launched for Fall 2009, specializes in timeless men’s classics, tweaked for young, stylish dudes.

Its plaid military jacket, part of the label’s fall lineup, employs a timeless silhouette, but tightens up the fit slightly and adds a drop of cool-kid flavor via a muted black-white-and-red plaid. Best of all -- it’s $168 (at Urban Outfitters), but looks miles more expensive.

‘A lot of guys don’t like to shop too much,’ said Choi, ‘and really fashion-y pieces scare them. We try to make a stylish, good quality product that everyone can get into. We steer clear of very trendy things -- rhinestones and graphics and all that.’

Choi, who’s father co-owns the Hong Kong-based trading and manufacturing company CFL (Life/After/Denim’s parent company), never thought he’d go into the rag trade; he has a master’s degree in public health from USC and was working in medical research before ditching it all for fashion.

‘The garment business has always been in my family,’ said Choi, ‘ but I didn’t come to it right away.’

--Emili Vesilind

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