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Celebrities jackets

Pandemic

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James Dean wore Lee jeans in RWAC, but Levi’s off-screen. Seems he wore a Wrangler denim jacket on the farm:

IMG_5894.jpeg
 

Edward

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James Dean wore Lee jeans in RWAC, but Levi’s off-screen. Seems he wore a Wrangler denim jacket on the farm:

View attachment 723223

I wish Wrangler would reissue that jacket as per the original design.... They do have a version in the 'icon' series, but it's narrowed in the arms, made too long in the body, the pleats at the front have been dropped, and the zip has been replaced with stud-buttons. The classic "we've brought back the classic you want - except we've changed everything so it isn't really the same item at all now..."

Porridge was a British, prison-set sitcom which ran on the BBC from 5th September 1974 (ten days before I as born), following a one-of pilot (as part of a series of seven pilots, each starring Ronnie Barker, with the idea that one would be selected to be made into a full series). This image was taken from Series One, Episode One, entitled New Faces, Old Hands. On the left of Ronnie Barker ( playing central character Norman Stanley Fletcher, and old lag for whom this is the latest of several spells inside) is the young Lennie Godber, a character who would go on to provide a foil for many of Fletcher's exploits as the young, inexperienced convict serving his first sentence. Godber was played by Richard Beckinsale - father of actresses Samantha and Kate, and who died tragically young, of a massive heart attack, in his sleep at the age of just 31.

When we first see Godber, he's being processed on his admission into prison. Not yet in uniform, he's wearing a Mascot Black Night, a very distinctive model from the British motorcycle jacket manufacturer.

1756149716926.png


The screenshot is a bit blurry due to the lesser quality of the old TV footage available, but better shots of it here:

Mascots were, alongside the likes of Goldtop, a more affordable alternative to Lewis or Highwayman on the British mc leathers scene in the 60s and 70s. Many big name punk bands wore mascots before they made a bit of money and were able to afford a new Lewis. Members of the damned wore them at one time and another, and as I've posted before now (quite possibly earlier on this thread)the Undertones' Feargal Sharkey wore a Mascot Black Night (and yes, the lack of a 'k' is correct) on the cover of the band's eponymous debut album:

1756150034897.png


In this alternate cover, you can see in particular the exterior windflap behind the zip on the left ****** (right hand side to the viewer):

1756150126305.png


This, and a distinctive, two-point, Western style yoke on the back were hallmarks of this jacket that really made it stand out from any other lancer front of the era.

I put up a thread about a brief revival of the Mascot line in 2015; they brought out three models, including this one, plus a fourth that was in a vaguely Supermonza style, save in nylon rather than leather. The venture didn't take off, sadly, despite being sold through the Ace Cafe and some nice promotion, and the business folded some time prior to 2019.
 

Tom71

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I wish Wrangler would reissue that jacket as per the original design.... They do have a version in the 'icon' series, but it's narrowed in the arms, made too long in the body, the pleats at the front have been dropped, and the zip has been replaced with stud-buttons. The classic "we've brought back the classic you want - except we've changed everything so it isn't really the same item at all now..."

Porridge was a British, prison-set sitcom which ran on the BBC from 5th September 1974 (ten days before I as born), following a one-of pilot (as part of a series of seven pilots, each starring Ronnie Barker, with the idea that one would be selected to be made into a full series). This image was taken from Series One, Episode One, entitled New Faces, Old Hands. On the left of Ronnie Barker ( playing central character Norman Stanley Fletcher, and old lag for whom this is the latest of several spells inside) is the young Lennie Godber, a character who would go on to provide a foil for many of Fletcher's exploits as the young, inexperienced convict serving his first sentence. Godber was played by Richard Beckinsale - father of actresses Samantha and Kate, and who died tragically young, of a massive heart attack, in his sleep at the age of just 31.

When we first see Godber, he's being processed on his admission into prison. Not yet in uniform, he's wearing a Mascot Black Night, a very distinctive model from the British motorcycle jacket manufacturer.

View attachment 725258

The screenshot is a bit blurry due to the lesser quality of the old TV footage available, but better shots of it here:

Mascots were, alongside the likes of Goldtop, a more affordable alternative to Lewis or Highwayman on the British mc leathers scene in the 60s and 70s. Many big name punk bands wore mascots before they made a bit of money and were able to afford a new Lewis. Members of the damned wore them at one time and another, and as I've posted before now (quite possibly earlier on this thread)the Undertones' Feargal Sharkey wore a Mascot Black Night (and yes, the lack of a 'k' is correct) on the cover of the band's eponymous debut album:

View attachment 725259

In this alternate cover, you can see in particular the exterior windflap behind the zip on the left ****** (right hand side to the viewer):

View attachment 725260

This, and a distinctive, two-point, Western style yoke on the back were hallmarks of this jacket that really made it stand out from any other lancer front of the era.

I put up a thread about a brief revival of the Mascot line in 2015; they brought out three models, including this one, plus a fourth that was in a vaguely Supermonza style, save in nylon rather than leather. The venture didn't take off, sadly, despite being sold through the Ace Cafe and some nice promotion, and the business folded some time prior to 2019.

Feargal Sharkey. Oh those memories…

Of course I only came upon him later, in his solo days. Surprised, that you bring up the Undertones, as your are even two years younger, but hen you always have been closer to this culture (geographically speaking at least).
 

Edward

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Feargal Sharkey. Oh those memories…

Of course I only came upon him later, in his solo days. Surprised, that you bring up the Undertones, as your are even two years younger, but hen you always have been closer to this culture (geographically speaking at least).

My musical tastes were always a generation older than me in my teens as well. :)
 

Pandemic

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Is it just a quirk of the photo, or are those military strides with the patch pockets on the thigh, like the ones he's wearing in the farm shot above?

Maybe!

There's something borderline beatnik about his look here. Maybe it's him in his glasses reminding me of a young Burroughs?

Definitely! I always liked the contrast with the delicate and academic looking glasses with his rough and tumble workwear.

And in the mid-50s wearing a surplus deck jacket would’ve implied either a veteran down on his luck or someone a bit more countercultural.
 

Edward

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Definitely! I always liked the contrast with the delicate and academic looking glasses with his rough and tumble workwear.

I think it's a big part of what gives it the feel real period shots have. Aside from the glasses being of the period themselves, the commonality of them is a thing. Contacts are common now to a degree way over and above where they were even thirty years ago; back in the 50s they were in their infancy and rare indeed. Nobody back then had laser treatment. Glasses were just much more common for everyone... Seeming them on people you might not have expected to see wearing them today gives that lost world in photos a different feel, I think.

The do give Dean in particular something of a softer look, imo.

And in the mid-50s wearing a surplus deck jacket would’ve implied either a veteran down on his luck or someone a bit more countercultural.


Oh, and how! I remember even in the late eighties / turn of the 90s when I started to buy a lot of my casual wear out of the local army surplus place (most of it US and European surplus; how I wish now I'd bought the biggest of the original 60s MA1s and M65s that sold for £20 a pop back then!), my Dad was dumbfounded at the notion anyone would choose to do that. In his youth, that stuff was "for workers on building sites and people who really just could not afford anything else." I think the "clothing for people who couldn't afford regular clothes" notion hung around culturally for some time; I recall a gag being told by a comedian one night. I think it might have been Jasper Carrat? "We were so poor when I was growing up I had to be clothed out of the army surplus store. It was no fun going to school as a Japanese sniper." Similar thing happened in the early eighties in England with donkey jackets too.
Sadly the last time I went back to that part of Belfast, my old surplus haunts aren't what they were. One branch is long gone, the block it was in having been knocked down to make way for a big new mall in the early 2000s, the other still there but it's all mainstream camping gear now. The surplus stuff I wore then was mostly 60s/70s and cheap - now a lot of it is rare and vintage, i.e. expensive. It's hard now ever to find a pair of 'Northern Ireland Gloves', let alone the padded finger early pattern I remember seeing on the streets back when I was at school and the squaddies patrolled Royal Avenue.

1756574148482.png


This is the only shot I've ever seen of Eddie Cochran in this coat. A WW2 era USN M69 Transport Coat. Long, seal brown, goatskin. Mouton collar. Some were like a buttoned and belted trenchcoat, some fastened with a long, double-ended zipper instead of buttons. Can't tell from this shot which Cochran's was. I'd love a repro of either version one day (the zip has an appeal as being just a little different). To date I've only seen the Coockpit repro, not sure how accurate it is.
 

Marvin Berry

Familiar Face
Messages
57
David Lee Roth on stage.

Saw him last month and he was great-- one of the best concerts I've seen (and i was at the Metallica show in Syracuse last April that set attendance records). No, he can't sing very well-- but he never really could so that's a moot point.
david-lee-roth-performs-at-humphreys-concerts-by-the-bay-1068429.jpg
 

Brandrea33

One Too Many
Messages
1,248
David Lee Roth on stage.

Saw him last month and he was great-- one of the best concerts I've seen (and i was at the Metallica show in Syracuse last April that set attendance records). No, he can't sing very well-- but he never really could so that's a moot point. View attachment 728607
I’m curious …. If he can’t sing (you’re absolutely right BTW lol) what was so good about it?
 

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