A War Against Poor Clothing
- dzaki
- Jun 11, 2017
- 5 min read
New trends and new style of clothing emerge whenever a war breaks or stops. Take the m-65 field jacket for example, originally worn to assist soldier engage in combat in a cold-weather condition, the m-65 parka gained its popularity in the 70's when the soldiers served in The Vietnam War came home and brought the parka with them. Though, the mainstream media picked up the trend when the m-65 parka appeared on the silver screen being worn by the likes of Al Pacino in Serpico (1973) and Robert Deniro in Taxi Driver (1976) which are still around the time of Vietnam War, rocketing the popularity of an already classic m-65 even more.
Another example is the older brother of the m-65, the m-51 fishtail parka. Like its younger brother, the m-51 was designed to help soldiers engage in combat in a cold-weather condition. The m-51 was made popular by the Mods beginning in the late 50s in the U.K. The original idea was to keep the clothes clean while riding through the streets of england with their italian scooter. This kind of fashion was brought to the U.S. with the british invasion and instantly adopted by the youth in the U.S. and surely followed by the rest of the world.
How culture change what once was merely a piece of clothing with utilitarian purpose into a form of self expression is exactly how fashion works. Fashion transcends the utilitarian purpose of everyday clothing into wearable art. And the armed force uniform is no exception. Armed force uniform is no stranger as to where fashion plucks its inspiration from. From the most exclusive designer label in Paris to H&M and Zara, all have their own spin of what the armed force is wearing.
Now we are going to talk about some of the most iconic iteration fashion has ever done to a humble lowly everyday armed force uniform.
Undercover GIRA Fishtail Parka
A straight-up iteration of the well known m-51, the GIRA parka features the classic M-51 detailing with a cool, yet very subtle touch from the man Jun Takahashi himself. GIRA, stands for Gyakusou International Running Association, which is Jun's running club with the mentality of reverse running., is hand-painted on the left part of the torso and the "ATTACK" lettering on the right sleeve is also hand-painted. On the back there's a painting which seems to be an explanation of the reverse running mentality
WTAPS X Bathing Ape M-65
WTAPS is known for the coolest military-inspired streewear brand in Japan, if not the world. WTAPS gained its popularity by infusing a clever streetwear consciousness to super high quality military inspired garments such as the M-65 field parka and the jungle shirt, which the brand is famous for.
Somewhwre along the road, they released a collaboration piece with A Bathing Ape. Together they released a rip-stop M-65 filed parka with the infamous Bape camo printed all over the garment. The result ended up being not tacky at all, they made the camouflage to be at a similar tone with the fabric making the camouflage look actually like a real coamuflage seen in military unifrom.
Helmut Lang High Neck MA-1 Bomber Jacket
The 90s is no doubt the peak of Helmut Lang works. A true minimalist, Lang's deign is very sophisticated without being too loud. It did something the most simple thing to achieve something totally great. To me the piece that truly embodies Lang's minimalistic approach is the High Neck Bomber Jacket released in 1998.
Inspired by the German bomber jacket, Lang then added zipper closure on the front that goes through the collar of the jacket, resulting in a turtle neck bomber jacket. The piece was cut slim to achieve the clean, modern look.
A.F.F.A. MA-1 Bomber Jacket
A.F.F.A. (Anarchy Forever, Forever Anarchy) is an on and off collaborative project between Hiroshi Fujiwara, the man behind Fragment Design and The Godfather of Japanese streetwear, and Jun Takahashi, the brain behind japanese high fashion label, Under Cover. Throughout the year the brand have been making some noticable bomber jackets.
The particular piece here is an olive MA-1 bomber jacket with details that Hiroshi and Jun really interested in: punk movement. Based on a seemingly vintage Alpha Industries MA-1, the jacket is really an homage to the punk fashion Godmother, Vivienne Westwood, taking inspiration from the legendary punk shirt created by Vivienne and her then boyfriend Malcolm MacLaren back in the 70s. The jacket bears graphic of common punk phrase like "Only Anarchist Are Pretty" and a portrait of Karl Marx, which are really prevalent on punk influenced garments. What is so special about this piece and the A.F.F.A. brand as a whole is its mythical almost non-existent status, there are only a few images on the interweb and much less for sale.
Raf Simons Consumed Bondage Bomber Jacket
Raf Simons needs no introduction in the menswear fashion. He continually influences the direction which men's fashion will go. And now we feel like his work is more relevant than ever. His spring 2003 collection titled "Consumed" shows how he is clearly way ahead of his time. He foreshadowed how internet culture would fed consumerism by relentless advertising. An exemplary case is the bomber jacket with graphics, mimicking logo from big corporations' all over the jacket. And also the floor of his entire runway at the fashion show is made out of pressed used soda can, playing with the inevitable dark facts about consumerism. But to me the piece that really stood out from the collection is the bondage bomber jacket made out of parachute material.
This piece is not your everyday-looking bomber jacket since Raf has reimagined the traditonal bomber jacket in so many ways he found possible, creating a new never before seen silhouette of punk inspired bomber jacket. The intricate placing of zippers, pockets, and bondage straps really shows Raf's masterful craftsmanship and attention to detail. Parachute material is used to achieve the look of recycled plastic bags, showing us even more the obvious gloomy outlook of consumerism.
Rebuild By Needles Fatigue Pants
Rebuild by Needles is a specific line from the brand Needles which focuses on reworking vintage garments into an entirely new and interesting piece of clothing. They are famous for the 7-cut and ribbon flannels seen frequently on Ian Connor. But they also make really great military inspired garments. The piece we're talking is the M-1951 fatigue pants from their 2013 collection. As usual, the piece is made out of scraps of vintage military garments which then cut and sewn back together creating one-of-a-kind pants. The unusual pocket placements make for an interesting detailing and proportion of the pants itself. My absolute favorite detail on the pants obviously the zipper placed all the way in the middle of the leg. This allows the wearer to adjust the fit as they see fit. Truly functional without undermining the visual aesthetic of the garment
Comments