Summary

Men's collarless polyester jacket. from the 1960s.

Jacket was purchased in 1966, from a small department store called 'Denny's' in Rochester, in country Victoria. It is unlabelled, but is believed to be Australian made. The donor was 15 or 16 years old, living on a nearby farm with his parents and siblings at the time.

He and his siblings were interested in the British 'Carnaby Street' style, and the donor thinks this interest, and the purchase of the jacket, were inspired by the Melbourne newspaper 'Go Set', which was sold at the Rochester Newsagent. The black trim and collarless design imitates the suit style made famous by The Beatles, considered radical for the time in country Victoria, and the donor's father found the style unconventional.

During the early 1980s, the donor's younger sister retrieved the jacket from storage, and brought it to Melbourne to wear, as there was a world-wide revival in the 1960s mod look amongst the young.

Physical Description

Men's cream polyester jacket with black trim. Collarless design, with purple satin lining. Imitation mother of pearl buttons. Black trimmed double welt pockets on front. Waist belt band with black trim sewn across the back.

Significance

The jacket is significant as an example of a locally made, overseas inspired, piece of youth clothing from the 1960s. It illustrates how local manufacturers created products for the emerging youth market by quickly tapping into the pop-cultural trends of the time. Pop music and its associated fashions and trends were being globally distributed by the mass media, and more regionally in local publications such as the pop music newspaper 'Go-Set'.

The collarless jacket style, with its distinctive black piping around the edges, was made famous by the Beatles, in a look created for them in 1963 by Soho, London tailor Dougie Millings. It was an adaption of a style of suit created by Paris fashion designer Pierre Cardin in 1960. Part of its appeal to Millings was that it was easy for him to reproduce for the masses when the Beatles became nationally, and then internationally, famous. The design was soon being knocked off by tailors and ready to wear companies around the world, including Australia from where this example came.

Its later use by the donor's sister graphically illustrates one of the numerous fashion and popular culture revivals that have occurred in Victoria during the later part of the 20th century and into the 21st century. The mod revival of the late 1970s and early 1980s started in the United Kingdom, partly inspired by the 1979 film 'Quadrophenia' and by mod-influenced bands such as The Jam. It saw a resurgence of interest in mod music, mod fashion and the mod's preferred mode of transport, the scooter.

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