Black VS Brown Leather Jackets - Page 4

When did he write that, 1936? Not that I care about conveying "class" but Fussel, whoever he is, can suck my dick.

u dumb. almost as dumb as morgan

here he is. obey him.

lol that's just silly. Like something I'd expect to see over on MC.

It was actually true awhile back, say when Bourdieu wrote about distinction and class taste, but things pretty much moved around in the last few decades (see theory of omnivore distinction) cause of fashion designers recuperating the "menacing" biker and S&M black leather looks and upper class people subscribing to the whole "borrowing things from subculture", even (especially) working class ones. Not that we care that much here considering our (well mine) scheme of reference is mostly a fantastical, fragmented collage of disparate references taken from pop-culture, high art and runway fashions.

tempted to make this pic my sig

in pointing out the dumbness of not being able to imply that a brand new brown can't be compared to worn out brown (or purposely antiqued), well, you're just an idiot.

He wrote "Class: A Guide Through the American Status System" in 1983 or so. It's actually a very funny book, and full of wry insight. The chapter on clothing is just a small part of it, but that one sentence stuck in my head and the exact quotation was easily googleable.

So, in response to a special flower thread posing the question "in general what is the difference between a black and a brown leather jacket?" I say: when someone says "black leather jacket" I think bouncer, town car driver, the Nazi S.S., and Guitar Wolf. Like Fuuma says, a fantastical, fragmented collage of disparate references. Although brown leather jackets often connote either WWII bombers or early '70s hippies, the association isn't as strong and they're generally easier to pull off in any context.

I think people have a very difficult time moving away from the associations of what a black or brown leather jacket has attached to it. I say fuck it and make it your own.

this is the problem with mc, for some reason they are programmed by associations like lab mice not judging a piece on its own merit, they see something they like and then their brain goes nope that's the same color a hells angel wears no thanks...the implication here is that all black leather looks the same too which is an idiotic pov rye post up that black leather ps. here's an association for you mc fucks your brown looks like my doodoo

I read it for a class and also found it enjoyable. As you say, the tone is humorous and observational, not condemnatory.

I understand what you're saying, but many stylistic choices are made precisely because a particular piece carries certain connotations. I mean, when a designer appropriates a style from biker or S&M subculture (to use Fuuma's examples), the designer isn't erasing those associations but highlighting and recontextualizing them. You can't make something your own without acknowledging that it was someone else's first.

Black leather is an aggressive, typically masculine material. This is exactly why Schott Perfectos are so badass, and why the Gestapo looked so terrifying. At the same time, this creates a higher degree of difficulty for the wearer. It makes a statement, and that statement is not "I'll meet you for gin and tonics at the club." Sure, you can use washed lamb or some other softened/wrinkled leather or whatever but then you're just highlighting the contrast between the altered material and traditional "black leather," with all that implies.

I hate this idea.


People posting "man i love DRs but i couldn't pull it off" wtf?

a) a DR is not the most aggressively designed thing in the world

b) Even if something is crazily designed, if you like it, it fits you well and you have the pieces to match, you can make it work.

Honestly you're pretty incorrect in every detail man. Schott Perfectos aren't always badass (really the puffier silhouette compared to a modern leather makes them seem kind of fogeyish to me), and the Gestapo looked so terrifying because they were going to fucking kill you, not because of their color.

I feel like at this point black leather jackets have been completely reappropriated as regular-person-wear; I don't get much of a sense of menace from something like the ToJ DR. In fact, the night-wear connotations of black leather mean that it probably is better for saying "I'll meet you for gin & tonics at the club" than a brown leather; the club in question would be short on poor submissive servants but long on waitresses wearing thongs under their skirts.

And also saying that thick black calf is the only "true" or "traditional" black leather is just incomprehensible to me.

hard to argue with this