leather jacket lifestyle question 1

[El Marro]

I been balling a shiny black steel jack-hammer,
Been chippin' up rocks for the great highway,
Live five years if I take my time,
Ballin' that jack and a drinkin' my wine.

Easy Wind,
Definitely my favorite Dead song

 

[Bfd70]

Wearing leather jackets on a tropical island is really quite silly!
View attachment 328090

Dang jonesy, i don’t recall that one. Looks great!

 

[jonesy86]

Dang jonesy, i don’t recall that one. Looks great!

Thanks, it is a Five Star goatskin Freewheelers Sunset copy. Not a bad jacket for $230.

 

[jonesy86]

Easy Wind,
Definitely my favorite Dead song

Working Man's Dead, my favorite Dead album.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Not to hijack the thread further, but if you guys want to discuss the Grateful Dead, please include me!



My own photo taken at the famous Cornell U 5-3-77 show. Not "the best Dead show ever" as frequently voted, but a great show from a very creative period.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Well if you really don't want to hijack this thread then start a Dead thread elsewhere....

 

[regius]

In a sense, I think fashion was simpler during the 50's, especially for a middle class, married man. My father came out of the Great Depression and grew up dirt poor. He was a young man in the 50's. Guys that grew up like him did not splurge on clothing, even when they had money. He definitely would have considered a leather jacket an extravagance. He was either in a tie for work or going out to dinner, or in clothes for getting dirty. There was no middle of the road.

He was an air force, combat veteran with an athletic physique, even in his later years. If anyone could have pulled off a leather jacket, he could have, and I don't ever remember him ever wearing one. My uncle, another military vet, was a hard-core biker and motorcycle mechanic. I don't think I ever saw him not wearing a denim jacket or leather jacket. LOL Where/when I grew up, the blue collar guys wore leather jackets, not professionals. Since my father was a professional, and took his image seriously, it may have played into him never wearing one.

Today I see middle class, middle-aged people fretting over what they are going to wear to go to Starbucks. I think the opportunities for the average Joe to wear leather jackets and look cool are much more abundant today.

Wow, a lot of comment here already. And it’s certainly my fault, I think I compounded two questions into one and the second sub-question received the most feedback (would you mix cement in leather, that is), but yours actually addressed my first and main intended question, that is the fashion (and social-economical) perception of leather clothing in the old days.

 

[jonbuilder]

Wearing a leather jacket has practical advantages if one lives an active outdoor life. I spent the majority of my awake hours outdoors. I have always worn short sleeve shirts and now the skin on my lower arms is very thin and easily torn due to sun damage. Yesterday on my daily walk with my dog I fell hard while jump rocks to cross a creek. I landed hard on the gravel and rocks on the creek bank. Fortunately, I was wearing a 50s Buco sport jacket or the skin on the arm I landed on would have been servery torn. I prefer my jacket takes the blow rather than my arm. Weather-wise I could have gotten by without a jacket but weather permitting I wear a leather jacket walking my dog.

jacket when I got home

jacket after a wipe with a damp wag