A question about leather in the first half of the 20th century.

[Metatron]

Were the leather jacket designs popular on this forum, used exclusively for workwear and by motorcyclists/aviators between the 1920s and 1950s? Or were they used as every day 'casualwear' as well?

 

[ron521]

If you watch older movies, you often see people wearing leather jackets casually. And not "tough guys", often just regular joes, and sometimes janes too.

 

[Seb Lucas]

The leather jacket was what workmen wore before the nylon bomber jacket. Leather was worn by workmen on building sites, warfies, truck drivers, cabbies, welders, etc. It was a good windbreaker and resitant to hard wear. Those jackets were generally called utility jackets. It was larely a blue-collar item.

After the war many labourers wore old A2's. My dad wore one throughout the 1950's in Europe.

 

[Metatron]

That's the conclusion I had reached. I was watching 'On the Waterfront' and it occurred to me that the items used by the longshormen as as workwear, leather jackets, peacoats, plaid wool coats , are today mostly fashion items, albeit in their semi-disposable reincarnations.

In retrospect, the originals were both of better quality, and took more punishment!! It makes one realize the folly of the modern fashion industry and how wasteful the 'new cheap stuff every season' philosophy is. But that's another subject! :eusa_doh:

 

[Philalethes]

It makes one realize the folly of the modern fashion industry and how wasteful the 'new cheap stuff every season' philosophy is. But that's another subject! :eusa_doh:

I want to respond that the "new cheap stuff every season" view isn't even a philosophy (a philosophy being a reasonably well worked-out theory). But alas, if I remember correctly, Nietszche in one of his later incarnations argues for a theory of art which is strikingly similar to the fashion industry. So, perhaps it is a philosophy, if a very bad one.

 

[Seb Lucas]

New cheap stuff every season is the philosophy of the market place and it has made some people very wealthy. Philosophy doesn't have to be good or useful to be philosophy.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

In addition to workwer, many leather jackets were specifically designed and marketed for sportswear in the early C20th; Golf, cycling, and the like. These were often, though not exclusively, made in suedes. There are very few early jackets (pre-late 30s) specifically designed for motorcycling. From looking at photographic and film archives, bikers seem to have just utilised workwear styles.

I had a leather goods catalogue from 1919 - which I wish I hadn't sold, though a FLounge member now owns it - in which a very wide range of uses and purchasers was evident.

 

[Tomasso]

In addition to workwer, many leather jackets were specifically designed and marketed for sportswear in the early C20th; Golf, cycling, and the like.

Hermès made a leather golf jacket for the Duke of Windsor in 1918. The jacket featured a zipper, which until then had never been used on apparel .

 

[mimesis2nemesis]

Hermès made a leather golf jacket for the Duke of Windsor in 1918. The jacket featured a zipper, which until then had never been used on apparel .

Interesting... Do any photos of this design exist?

 

[Tomasso]

Interesting... Do any photos of this design exist?

None that I've seen on the net but I'm sure a photo, rendering, pattern or maybe even a copy exists in the Hermès archive at their flagship atelier in Paris. Since the firm was established in 1837 they have kept detailed documentation of their customer's bespoke commissions (as do tailoring houses, cordwainers, etc) so I'm sure that they have a big fat file containing every item the Duke/Duchess purchased over the years (who can forget the wheelbarrow commission.).

Also, I bet that a copy of the jacket could be commissioned from Hermès today, though a modern zip would probably replace the original.....

 

[Baron Kurtz]

^^ Re: above zipper. It was almost certainly made by Dot, and I suspect is not the zipper used in the 1918 jacket. Rather later design, methinks.