Type 156 Split Back Jeans hark back to the original research in 2010 for Tender’s first jeans, type 132. These were loosely adapted from vintage British Rail uniform trousers, adapted and mixed with other references to jeans and tailoring history. One change was to ‘open’ the original trousers pattern, to become 132 jeans. These 156 jeans, however, have not been opened. A traditional tailored trousers pattern is cut straight, so that the legs hang parallel and the front fly seam runs straight up the cloth: the stripes up the front of striped suit trousers all run straight up and down. Jeans, by contrast, are traditionally cut much more open: the legs naturally spread apart and the grain of the fabric meets in a chevron at the front fly seam.

Split Back Jeans are cut straight, with a very high waist. They can be worn with a belt or sitting on the hips, but they are delivered with cotton twill X back braces. Brace top trousers are usually cut with a split in the waistband, or shaped fishtail points on either side of the centre back, to allow easy movement of the fabric over the seat. As Tender jeans waistbands are attached on a chainstitch belting machine, 156 jeans are constructed with two separate waistbands, leaving a split at the back finished with a hem directly at the top of the back panels.

The side pockets are cut straight into the side seams, referring to their British Rail inspiration, and the legs are wide and long, to be hemmed, pegged, or rolled.