James Dean Jacket

[Robert C]

Can anyone recommend a jacket that is similar to the "famous" James Dean red windbreaker. So far my seach has been unsuccessful....

 

[Jay]

http://online.cmgww.com/njdstore/product.asp

That should work. They sell them on the Official James Dean website.
Hope that helps.

 

[Robert C]

I wound up getting a good deal from Will at Aero for a red rickey jacket. It appears to meet the criteria in every way. I let you know how it looks when I get it.....

Robert C

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Does anyone know where the original jacket is? I had read that and old friend had his black leather jacket, but no word about the red windbreaker.

I also read in one book that he had a red jacket with him the day he died but had taken it off while driving. Later, in the book, the author stated that JD's father had the clothes JD had on when he died burned. Which distressed me because I wondered if one of them was the red jacket, i.e. the real red jacket he wore in Rebel Without a Cause.

Also am wondering, like Dorothy's red shoes, if there was more than one jacket used in the filming of Rebel.

Thanks for the website, Jay.

karol

 

[green papaya]

POLO makes a nice jacket

at MACY's

 

[Harry Lime]

Does anyone know where the original jacket is? I had read that and old friend had his black leather jacket, but no word about the red windbreaker.

I also read in one book that he had a red jacket with him the day he died but had taken it off while driving. Later, in the book, the author stated that JD's father had the clothes JD had on when he died burned. Which distressed me because I wondered if one of them was the red jacket, i.e. the real red jacket he wore in Rebel Without a Cause.

Also am wondering, like Dorothy's red shoes, if there was more than one jacket used in the filming of Rebel.

Thanks for the website, Jay.

karol

Most things with James Dean lack any kind of agreement or conclusion. The burned clothes thing sounds like urban myth born of the Cain and Abel type relationship Dean supposedly had with his father (dramatized in East of Eden.) It is doubtful his clothes or personal possessions were burned; probably just given away or misplaced. Or, because there were ghoulish collectors even back then, snapped up immediatly by fans.

There is no agreement on even what type of jacket the red one was from Rebel. Some involved with the movie claim it was off the rack from a department store. Others claim it was custom made. No one knows what became of it.

Likewise Dean's "Death Porsche." It toured the country as a wreck for awhile and it to was misplaced (or scrapped.) No one seems to have a definite answer.

The only factual thing I've seen on Dean that is verifiable is an article that ran recently about the man who has lived in Dean's old NYC apartment for the last 25 years. He's a cab driver. The place looks pretty much likie it did when dean left it except he had the sink replaced.

Harry Lime

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Harry --

I certainly agree with you about "urban legends" surrounding Dean.

I read in one account that Dean himself picked out the red jacket to use in Rebel (off the rack), but that he had to have it dipped in some special dye to lessen the brightness of the jacket as it was just too, too red. But I have never read about what became of the original jacket.

Once, in a NYC clothing store, they displayed a pair of jeans that were allegedly Jame's Dean's. They had cigarette burns all over them, really all over them. Somehow, looking at them, size-wise, etc., I deduced they were not Dean's. Or maybe I just did not want to believe he would put that many cigarette holes in his jeans.

Heard lots of stories about that car, too, and that it was cursed from car parts of an assassination at the beginning of WWI, and parts of the death car were dispersed to other cars, causing accidents, etc.

I have read many books on Dean -- from Bast's James Dean Story to Dalton's Mutant King and on up to Beath's The Death of James Dean -- and the more I read, the more I don't know.

karol

 

[Absinthe_1900]

You'll need one of these to put in the pocket. (Handmade by an 80+ year old Italian craftsman that made the 50's originals)

A picklock collector on a private forum saw the one Dean had in the movie, still all scratched up from sliding on the concrete.
Back in the 90's one of the big auction houses sold the Rebel Picklock for several grand.

Original 50's Latama's & Coricama's go for terrible prices these days.
($1500.00 to 3000.00 on up)

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I believe that James Dean's red cotton jacket was made by Baracuta, a '50s - '60s manufacturer of windbreakers that saw a revival in the '70s-'80s. I had a Baracuta jacket that looked a lot like Dean's. The available colors were black, navy blue, khaki, beige ... and red.

.

 

[Robert C]

Aero Leather Ricky Jacket

Got the AeroLeather red Ricky Jacket over the weekend. It's a good stand in for the Dean jacket but not an exact match (it was not intended to be). It is however, a wonderful repro of the 50's ricky. Excellent quality, great fit, looks very sharp, the jacket rocks!!! I'll post a picture if I have time this week.....

Robert C

 

[BellyTank]

I believe that James Dean's red cotton jacket was made by Barracuta, a '50s - '60s manufacturer of windbreakers that saw a revival in the mid-1980s. I had a Barracuta jacket that looked exactly like Dean's. The available colors were black, navy blue, khaki, beige ... and red.

I thought the Dean jacket was a McGregor...(?)

B
T

 

[SHARPETOYS]

Thats what I read also.

Classic 1950's style jackets, based on the design of the famous 'McGregor Anti-Freeze' jacket worn by James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause

 

[pointystuff]

Can anyone recommend a jacket that is similar to the "famous" James Dean red windbreaker. So far my seach has been unsuccessful....

I found a similar jacket at a Dillard's dept. store.
It's by Roundtree and Yorke. The shell is polyester; the lining is cotton.
Seems like it was around $50 on sale.

Good luck,
Brad

 

[Salv]

I thought the Dean jacket was a McGregor...(?)

B
T

I think it was the McGregor Anti-Freeze

 

[smsstuart]

More than You Want to Know About the Red Jacket

Okay kids… follow along with me and repeat out loud, if necessary:

In 1951, McGregor Sportswear began to sell what may very possibly be the first waist-length style NYLON jacket sold to the general public. (FYI, nylon was invented by a DuPont chemist, Wallace Carothers, marketed around 1938 and after a brief release to the consumer market, was used exclusively by Uncle Sam during WWII. In the early ‘50’s it was beginning to see use in the consumer market again). McGregor called it the Anti-Freeze Jacket and it had a white, fleeced nylon lining and the shell was available in an array of colors over the many years the style was available – all the way up through the 1980’s.

Now then, knowing that bit of information and also knowing just what one of these jackets looked like, (and without going into all the minutia of the tailoring details, etc.), would lead most viewers with properly working eyeballs to conclude that indeed, what was seen on the big screen and the myriad of publicity photos, was an Anti-Freeze Jacket. Knowing clothing from the 1950’s as I do, and viewing the film over the years always led me to that conclusion – with only one slight question. As mentioned above, the jackets had a white lining, not a gray one as seen in the film. I had always assumed Warner’s Wardrobe Dept. modified the lining to make it more “photogenic”.

Fast-forward several years to the mid 1990’s when I was projecting (a 35mm) print of the film and noticed an image on the screen I hadn’t seen before. As Jim hands Plato his jacket in the planetarium auditorium, you can see what appears to be a label inside the jacket. Curiosity being what it is, I wound through the reel of film to the pertinent frames, and using an eye loupe was able to clearly discern the famous McGregor Anti-Freeze label. So, does this re-affirm my conclusion that what we saw in the film is a (modified, but with the original label still intact) jacket that could have been bought at a department store, or is there another explanation?

Fast-forward, again, several more years to 2005 and the publication of “Live Fast, Die Young”, by Lawrence Frascella & Al Weisel where they interview, for the first time, the costume designer on Rebel – Moss Mabry. To paraphrase what Mabry said, he “…developed a pattern for the jacket using a bolt of red nylon… Even though the jacket looked simple, it wasn’t. The pockets were in just the right place; the collar was just the right size”. What right place, what right size?? Seems to me what may have taken place is Mabry used an Anti-Freeze jacket as a pattern to make an identical copy (with gray lining – and McGregor label) which perhaps had a more custom-fit for his actor. Certainly very believable, as that’s just what costume designers and studio wardrobe departments could do, if necessary; even re-creating “ready-to-wear” clothes. (Another tidbit of info is McGregor was a maker of high-quality, “ready-to-wear” clothing and as such “sized their clothes”. i.e.: 38, 40, 42, etc, as opposed to Med, Large, XL, etc.) So yes, they detailed their clothing more than other manufacturers making lesser-quality clothing.

You can read the entire story, including all the theories put-forth over the years on pages 118-121 in the book. In addition Mabry claims to have made three jackets for the film. When he was working on Continental Divide, with John Belushi, in 1981, at Belushi’s request, Mabry even flew to LA to revisit Warner’s wardrobe dept and unrolled “a familiar bolt of red nylon, and sitting inside the roll was the pattern Mabry originally used to make the red jacket…” and from it Mabry made a “Rebel” jacket for Belushi. Maybe, but even if true, Belushi was just a bit larger then James Dean, so if Mabry used “the pattern” it would have needed to be “let out”, as it were.

And to add more fodder to the mix, I have seen pictures (although none in person) of a red, Anti-Freeze jacket with gray lining – which begs the questions: did McGregor offer a model with a gray lining during the shooting of the film? Or did McGregor offer a red jacket with a gray lining after the release of the film, due to the notoriety of the jacket? Or did Mabry modify - including adding the McGregor label (or create from scratch) a gray-lined jacket?

Had enough?? Sorry, more questions than answers. But one thing is for absolute certain – at the very least the McGregor Anti-Freeze Jacket was the inspiration for what James Dean wore in Rebel Without a Cause – or perhaps it’s the genuine article.

Now why some enterprising small clothing company can’t copy (exactly) the Anti-Freeze design, I really don’t know. It’s not difficult for those who know the in’s and out’s of clothes and can get the needed fabrics in bulk. (Although good luck matching the exact Talon zipper…)

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Wow, I have to keep up on my James Dean reading. Thanks Stuart.

I did read in one of the many books on JD, it might have been The Mutant King, or a later one, that James Dean got the jacket and had someone dip it in some sort of dye to tone down the color. Might that be why the lining was gray?

It had always frustrated me that no one seems to know what happened to the original jacket, or perhaps three jackets. They tracked Dorothy's red shoes, why not JD's jacket(s)?

karol

 

[Mike in Seattle]

Does anyone know where the original jacket is? I had read that and old friend had his black leather jacket, but no word about the red windbreaker.

I also read in one book that he had a red jacket with him the day he died but had taken it off while driving. Later, in the book, the author stated that JD's father had the clothes JD had on when he died burned. Which distressed me because I wondered if one of them was the red jacket, i.e. the real red jacket he wore in Rebel Without a Cause.

Also am wondering, like Dorothy's red shoes, if there was more than one jacket used in the filming of Rebel.

There probably were several purchased, and they were probably bought off the rack. It's not an unusual windbreaker. Costume departments have enough to do working on customizing or recreating historical costumes that when it comes to movies & shows set in present day (as Rebel Without a Cause was when it was made), they get a lot of stuff off the rack at any store carrying what they need. And they usually buy several in case something happens to one of them. Most stars wouldn't keep anything as ordinary as the windbreaker he wore - everyone had them, the probably came from Sears or Penney's, and when you're trying to avoid fans spotting you, you wouldn't go out in such a stand-out part of a well-known costume. And with James Dead ANYTHING he touched is considered to be a museum piece by many and if that jacket were still around, you'd have heard about it.

It, or they, may have been hanging in a costume warehouse somewhere for years, or may have been cut-up, dyed or re-used in another productions, or sold or even most likely, sadly, just tossed out with the trash. Debbie Reynolds used to haunt sales & warehouse clear-out sales (they used to have them periodically) to see what she could find because she knew (and she was right) that Hollywood history and artifacts were being destroyed and/or lost and at some point in the future, people would regret they hadn't been saved.

I remember about 15 years ago, Western Costume had one of their big clear-out sales and I was trying to get something from Dances with Wolves but that had all gone the day before. And we're talking dirt cheap, pre-internet, pre Ebay. I did actually have in my hands one of Dustin Hoffman's prison outfits from Papillon with certificate of authenticity and his signature on the waistband - $25. I picked it up, looked it over, thought "Maybe if I don't find anything else of interest," and I passed on it...and many's the time in the ensuing years I've kicked myself for not grabbing it. With the way things go on Ebay, something like that might've paid for a new car, or some damn spiffy fedoras and vintage suits!!!

They had a show on SciFi that went in search of Dean's ghost a couple months ago and they showed lots of pictures of that day and what various places he was at that day looked like today. And in the pictures I've seen of the fateful day, I honestly don't recall any showing him in the red jacket. Knowing tabloids at the time, I would bet had he been wearing that jacket or even a similar one, they would've made a big thing out of him dying in his "Rebel" jacket.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Mike -- Yes, I would think the media would pick up on the "Rebel" red jacket. I only read it was a red jacket, not the red jacket, and I believe he took it off and gave it to Wutherich, who was feeling chilled. Which means, Wutherich would have had it on at the time of the crash. He survived and who knows what happened to that jacket -- or if it was even one of the "Rebel" jackets. Dean, by then, had become famous and, although Rebel Without a Cause had not yet opened to the public, he might have preferred to be low profile at the races.

Guess we will never know for certain. I was 13 when he died and have always been somewhat obsessed with him, my first teenage --oh, well, you know. And "Rebel" really had a huge impact on teenagers at the time.

karol

 

[smsstuart]

The story about dipping the jacket in "black paint" has been circulating for some time and seems idiotic on the surface. The only possible explanation for "taking the sheen off" could be the film's use of WarnerColor, which admittedly, was inferior to Technicolor - maybe it proved too difficult to properly balance the color of the release prints. It's certainly possible the jacket(s) were dipped in a red/gray dye that would explain the gray lining. (Although the label was removed before dying). Also, the gray lining appears heavier then what was used in Anti-Freeze jackets, leading me to believe the lining was replaced, or McGregor had a version with a gray lining that was the same weight as used in their Seagull (reversible) jackets from that era.

I must agree with Mike, however, that it's simply an Anti-freeze jacket, with original gray lining - or whatever mods deemed necessary by Nicholas Ray (the director). I was trying to give Moss Mabry the benefit of the doubt, as he has died since the interview was conducted for the aforementioned book. But his rememberance sounds only slightly less idiotic than the dipping story. And according to "Live Fast, Die Young" Natalie Wood ended up with one of the three jackets, autographed by James Dean.

Again, pages 118-121 & 218 for more, although I've covered most of it. Just go to amazon.com and read those pages.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Stuart, your posts are fantastic. I'm delighted (when not frightened) by obsessions laid bare. The Holy Grail itself has probably not been so exhaustively looked into.