Edward
Bartender
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There was some interest in a thread on this in the discussion on the revived Mascot Leathers brand, so I figured I'd kick it off. Within the leather jacket niche, there is a very specific style that was adopted by the "Rockers" youth tribe of the late fifties and well into the sixties. As a movement, it coincided with the advent of the British rock and roll boom, both the original 1950s American stars, and the rise of home-grown acts, inspired and influenced by the acts, and which kept the form going into the early sixties. Bands like Vince Taylor and his Playboys (best known for the song Brand New Cadillac, later popularised to a new generation by The Clash). The mainstream popularity of British rock and roll was largely killed off by the Merseybeat scene, in particular those irritating Beatles with their clean, pop sound. The Stones were much closer to actual rock and roll, but a distinct shift in the sound nonetheless. The 'rocker' scene remained, though, centred equally on rock and roll and motorcycles. This, of course, was the era of the British motorcycling boom; cars were still out of the reach of many, and a motorcycle still represented affordable, honest transport for the working classes. Legend speaks of the Rockers who faced off against the Mods in British seaside resorts on bank holidays in the early sixties, climaxing with the worst of the violence in '64 in Margate and Brighton. In reality, while there were certainly isolated incidents, a lot of this was simply press sensationalism (as identified by academic Stan Cohen, who in 1972 published the classic Folk Devils and Moral Panics. It was in this work that Cohen published his term "moral panic", widely used since. Cracking book if you get the chance - there were a couple of new editions published in recent years, before Cohen died). It certainly is true that mod was a completely different philosophy: they wanted to be now, fashion forward, all about the latest thing (thus the idea of mod revivalism is already something at odds with the original concept of the movement). Rockers were already a retrospective tribe by 1963.
The British rocker look was certainly influenced by American imagery, from the music they loved and also the cinema. The Wild One was banned in Britain for fourteen years. It was only first passed by the censors in 1967, the first screening for the public being finally in 1968 at (appropriately) a meeting of the 59 Club. When you look at a photo of British rockers you can certainly see traces of the visual influence of American outlaw motorcycle gangs circa the late forties, as retold by Hollywood and Brando, but there are distinctly British quirks to the style. The boots tended to be British motorcycle boots, rear-zipped, and tighter fitting than American engineer boots, with off-white, wool seaboot socks folded over the tops. In those days before strict helmet laws, caps something like Brando's were on occasion worn, but most common in those photos are pudding-basic helmets, worn with goggles made to the same design as the RAF were wearing in WW2.
For more information on the scene, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocker_(subculture) to start... The best jump off point to learn about it, though, is the web page for original rocker hub, the Ace Café: http://www.ace-cafe-london.com.
The particular element I'm interested in looking at in this thread is the British Rocker jacket: a leather jacket, typically customised to the wearer's tastes. I first learned about the subculture and their jackets some nearly twenty years ago when looking into a leather jacket worn by Tim Curry as Dr Frank'n'Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Tim also wore the jacket on stage in The Rocky Horror Show, both in the original London production, and in LA at the Roxy, when the show first transferred to the US, ahead of making the film in '74). This is the jacket:
It's believed to have been a Lewis Plainsman, a style that was worn by some of the rockers (fringed jackets were rarer than non-fringed, but far from unheard of). The jacket was Tim Curry's own personal jacket; I don't know whether he put it together himself, though it seems more likely that he bought it used, already like that. He parted with the jacket at some point in time after the film was shot in Autumn 1974. Noone knows for certain where it went, but it is believed that this is the real thing, now in the hands of a fan:
Whatever its origins, this is very much a jacket in the style of some of the more extreme / ornate rocker jackets. Most of them weren't as decorated as the revivalists often go for. Here are some of the more full on revivalist looks:
Of course, there were originals that took it to extremes, just as there are many now who keep the more common, toned-down look.
This is a very strong look of an extreme original:
You can always tell a later jacket made by a revivalist straight off if they have Ace Café badging or something with "Rockers" on it. The Ace merchandising dates to the revival of the café in the nineties to date. I've never seen an original with the word "Rockers" used as a label on it - that seems to be a revival thing.
I'll post more in a bit, with some links to photos of original rockers...
The British rocker look was certainly influenced by American imagery, from the music they loved and also the cinema. The Wild One was banned in Britain for fourteen years. It was only first passed by the censors in 1967, the first screening for the public being finally in 1968 at (appropriately) a meeting of the 59 Club. When you look at a photo of British rockers you can certainly see traces of the visual influence of American outlaw motorcycle gangs circa the late forties, as retold by Hollywood and Brando, but there are distinctly British quirks to the style. The boots tended to be British motorcycle boots, rear-zipped, and tighter fitting than American engineer boots, with off-white, wool seaboot socks folded over the tops. In those days before strict helmet laws, caps something like Brando's were on occasion worn, but most common in those photos are pudding-basic helmets, worn with goggles made to the same design as the RAF were wearing in WW2.
For more information on the scene, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocker_(subculture) to start... The best jump off point to learn about it, though, is the web page for original rocker hub, the Ace Café: http://www.ace-cafe-london.com.
The particular element I'm interested in looking at in this thread is the British Rocker jacket: a leather jacket, typically customised to the wearer's tastes. I first learned about the subculture and their jackets some nearly twenty years ago when looking into a leather jacket worn by Tim Curry as Dr Frank'n'Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Tim also wore the jacket on stage in The Rocky Horror Show, both in the original London production, and in LA at the Roxy, when the show first transferred to the US, ahead of making the film in '74). This is the jacket:
It's believed to have been a Lewis Plainsman, a style that was worn by some of the rockers (fringed jackets were rarer than non-fringed, but far from unheard of). The jacket was Tim Curry's own personal jacket; I don't know whether he put it together himself, though it seems more likely that he bought it used, already like that. He parted with the jacket at some point in time after the film was shot in Autumn 1974. Noone knows for certain where it went, but it is believed that this is the real thing, now in the hands of a fan:
Whatever its origins, this is very much a jacket in the style of some of the more extreme / ornate rocker jackets. Most of them weren't as decorated as the revivalists often go for. Here are some of the more full on revivalist looks:
Of course, there were originals that took it to extremes, just as there are many now who keep the more common, toned-down look.
This is a very strong look of an extreme original:
You can always tell a later jacket made by a revivalist straight off if they have Ace Café badging or something with "Rockers" on it. The Ace merchandising dates to the revival of the café in the nineties to date. I've never seen an original with the word "Rockers" used as a label on it - that seems to be a revival thing.
I'll post more in a bit, with some links to photos of original rockers...
