I'm going to confess something to you.
After seeing Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive , I thought I could look as cool as Ryan Gosling. And that mainly came from the shiny, embroidered yellow scorpion jacket he wore throughout the movie. So I set out on a hunt for a similar jacket, just for me, that would instantly transform me into a big-hearted thug.
But here's the thing: I'm not Gosling.
And every time I put one of these jackets on, I was as believable as Michael Cera on a Harley Davidson.
After thinking about it, I couldn't see myself wearing this pack leader's jacket on my shoulders, this jacket to lead an extraordinary life, to beat up people and save the world from the apocalypse... validating my transport ticket every morning on the bus.
No way. Bye to the charismatic criminal in the moon in a sequence shot. Bye-bye to the Kavinsky soundtrack.
Despite everything, and after drying my tears, searching with all my strength for the object of my desire, I was able to develop a certain fascination for this jacket that Gosling was wearing. Not so much his, with the scorpion, but this type of jacket in general.
Digging a little deeper, I learned that it was the souvenir jacket, a flamboyant post-war jacket with mystical embroidery full of colors and secrets, born from the violent and fruitful encounter of American and Japanese cultures.
Enough to trigger an obsession, right?
The fabulous story of the souvenir jacket
Mick Jagger in the 1960s with a souvenir jacket on his back.
Like many items of clothing in the men's wardrobe, the origin of this jacket is military.
Except that it has never known the battlefields. And for good reason: it had no practical use linked to the exercise of war but a purely aesthetic and reminiscent vocation, since it is a souvenir brought home. Hence its name.
According to legend, this fabulous story begins with the will of a single man at the end of World War II. He was an American marine stationed at the Yokosuka naval base who had the idea of having his military exploits and his personal interpretation of Japanese culture embroidered on his baseball jacket.
" I think it started naturally in the cities where the Americans were based, who wanted to bring back a typically Asian garment. And, over time, the Asians began to make more and more American models to please the GIs. The first ones from the 40s were neither lined nor reversible, with two Watteau pleated pockets on the chest, wooden buttons. Little by little, they lined them, then padded them, then made them reversible from the Korean War onwards. "
Somehow, the souvenir jacket was born.
The company Tailor Toyo (then called Kosho & Co) is said to be the originator of the first souvenir jackets. Here, I show you part of the 2017 lookbook! Yes, it is still in business.
What is certain in any case is that, quickly, the demand for these jackets exploded. It is even said that tailors would have used surplus parachute sails to make more, giving the jacket its shine thanks to the parachute silk. The embroidery, meanwhile, was done in the city of Kiryu.
" The most beautiful ones are made of silk (very widespread in Asia at the time), acetate (wood fiber) or rayon (known as viscose in Europe). "
In W. David Marx's excellent book Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style , illustrator Yasuhiko Kobayashi, a witness to this era, recalls, " Yokosuka was crowded with young marines—many Americans who spent their time wandering around. They wore thug clothes like jeans, and whistled and swore. "
They also wear the famous souvenir jackets.
And while these jackets are humiliating to the Japanese people, something extraordinary is happening.
These jackets intrigue young Japanese people in the fashion movement called " sukaman" who already imitate the marines by wearing jeans, leather jackets and even their haircut (the James Dean pompadour). The souvenir jacket is no exception: the sukaman appropriate it.
This is how it went from being a souvenir object to a symbol of rebellion against mainstream society and acquired a new name: sukajan (or sukajyan).
And it doesn't stop there: with the film Buta to Gunkan (Pigs and Battleships - 1961) by Shohei Imamura, who dresses his main character in a sukajan, the souvenir jacket definitively enters Japanese culture and gains national notoriety. Soon it takes on the same status as Marlon Brando's leather perfecto in The Wild One (1953): it is the jacket of rebels and delinquents.
In the center is the character Kinta, a member of the Hitori gang, in the film Pigs and Battleships. The plot takes place in Yokosuka and tells the story of the relations between American soldiers and the Japanese underworld.
And the story is still not over.
With the Korean War (1950-1953) and the Vietnam War (1955-1975), the GIs had new souvenir jackets made, using the 9oz cotton from their field jackets (including the very famous M-65) as a blank canvas. .
The chosen themes leave less room for myth and symbols since they are mainly battle maps, menacing eagles, cartoons. Or even Marilyn Monroe riding an A-bomb.
And, more sinisterly, we now also find inscriptions such as "When I die I'll go to heaven, because I've served my time in Hell", which reflect the quagmire of an interminable conflict and the cry of horror of young people confronted with the Vietnam War.
Why is the souvenir jacket fascinating?
Because it is a means of personal expression
Well, I'm always very hesitant to say that you can express your personality through clothing. To tell you the truth, I don't think that's really possible. Maybe apart from expressing a more or less high degree of eccentricity and self-confidence, but that's reductive of course.
I must say, however, that with sukujan , we are still quite close.
In my opinion, for someone who really knows his story and has chosen his carefully, it produces the same effects as Nicolas Cage's python skin jacket in Wild at Heart ( Sailor and Lula - 1990) .
The actor is wearing a python jacket that belongs to him, and he convinced David Lynch to have Sailor Ripley, the main character, wear it.
In the film, Sailor repeatedly expresses that this snakeskin jacket is " a symbol of her individuality and her belief in individual freedom ."
And I think that wearing the sukujan nowadays, in the same way as Sailor Ripley, is expressing one's attachment to individual freedoms, the first of which is the freedom to dress as one pleases!
Because she is both heroic and sensitive
As children, we have a special relationship with clothes. They are endowed with magical protective powers (coats are armor, school bags are shields). Or, more often, they increase children's physical performance tenfold: for example, these are the "shoes that run fast", which we have all been able to test at one time or another in our lives.
So there is a playground mythology whose main vector is clothing. The world is enchanted and clothing is a means of accessing it.
And, in my opinion, this is exactly the role of sukujan for adults like us.
In our disenchanted world, the sukujan extends this playground mythology and gives its wearer a heroic power: it is the phoenix rising from its ashes, it is the koi carp that brings good luck, it is the immortal dragon, it is the man-eating tiger!
We turn our jackets inside out to show the tiger when it's time to fight. Photo Japan Lover Me.
However, it is not only that: the sukujan also reflects the sensitivity of the person who wears it.
When you think about it, it is originally made of silk: a delicate, living and soft material. It is the metonymic representation of the wearer's skin, of the sensitive surface of his being. It is the man as we see him in appearance. And, on the contrary, the embroideries are the testimonies of what truly characterizes him, deep down, deep in his heart, what he really is as a person: these are his tattoos. What he chooses or not to show (reversible function of the jacket).
For example, in Drive , when the main character has just beaten up a guy with a hammer and has just revealed to the viewer for the first time his violent and excessive nature, the jacket, highlighted by a fixed shot on Gosling's back, rises with the character's breathing, thus making the embroidered scorpion move, as if it were alive, like a tattoo on the skin that moves with you. He is a being who is both sensitive and heroic (in the mythological sense of the term).
Because it is a unique piece in the men's wardrobe
The jacket is made of a two-tone main material (often), shiny and delicate, a strong aesthetic dimension is attached to it (the embroidery) and its history is military! It's impressive, there's no denying it. If we add to that the fact that it 's a rare piece, if we want an original, then we get an ultra niche product, not to say hipster.
Very fashionable use of the souvenir jacket. Just a little hipster.
Think about it: we have few pieces of this type in the male wardrobe. And I often envy the heterogeneity of the female wardrobe, which can afford so much more than we ever could.
What saves the souvenir jacket from falling into the abyss of vulgar pieces, like the dragon shirt for example, is having on its side the weight of history and references to American and Japanese cultures.
What I like about the sukajan is that, in a man's wardrobe, it is a true "designer" piece. For that reason alone, I would like to own one. Wouldn't you?
What happened to the souvenir jacket today?
So yes, we could say that the historical context is no longer the same by definition, these jackets no longer have the same flavor. And that's not wrong. But the fact remains that they are still beautiful objects with a story worthy of being told (if we exclude the most fashionable versions aimed at generation Z).
In Japan
Young Japanese man with his sukajan (Photo Japan Lover Me)
The sukajan are not dead. No sir. The proof is in this funny recreational video from February 2017.
In Japan, you can buy them as souvenirs in touristy Tokyo. They are also found on the shoulders of Japanese urban youth: the jacket fits perfectly into schoolgirls' outfits (white shirt and skirt).
Efu Shokai, Switch Planning and Tailor Toyo are the main manufacturers still in business. They of course produce copies of the originals, but not only that, since they also draw inspiration from bikers, tattoos and rock culture in general. Because there is, in this jacket, a wind of inexhaustible freedom. Even if it has become a symbol of the Yakuzas, widely relayed by the cinema.
The range is also expanding: today we see the appearance of the sutajan (“stadium jumper”), which takes its roots from the sukajan, but with the thick, wintery varsity jacket as its medium of expression.
" The most widespread (because it mainly comes from the 50s and was very reissued in the 80s) is the bomber jacket. Varsity is for universities, Teddy is a purely French word that has no meaning when talking about a jacket in English (for them a Teddy Jacket is a sheepskin or grizzly jacket), Stadium is for sports. The term "bomber" simply defines the fact that the jacket has a ball shape due to its ribbed edge around the waist). "
In the rest of the world
In 2016, we see the souvenir jacket in the fashion shows of Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Stella McCartney to name a few. And Issey Miyake from 2015.
Issey Miyake campaign from 2015. It reads "Sukajan, the clash of cultures".
Since then, it has also been seen on the backs of famous pop artists such as Harry Styles, Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus.
This last piece of information would be a sufficient reason not to wear the souvenir jacket.
Where can I find some anyway?
Don't rush to buy the first one you see, because embroidery is like a tattoo on the skin. Of course, you can always leave it in the closet, but then you would prevent someone else from the ecstatic pleasure of wearing it.
Because it's the kind of piece with which there is a real emotional dimension, reinforced by the irrationality of wearing a piece like that: it's not particularly practical, it's not versatile, nor does it fit easily into the context of our societies today. And what's more, it's fragile.
But I'm pretty sure that eventually, you'll pass it on to your children. That's the beauty of this piece.
I still advise you two or three things:
- Try to find a reversible one , with one side sober and one side downright epic. That way, if you have a sense of spectacle and unfortunately fall into a street fight, you will turn your jacket (literally) and be able to enter the fight with power.
- Forget the price/quality ratio , it is a purchase on impulse that you do not buy for its technicality. And, very often, those that we find in thrift stores and stores, at decent prices, are made of polyester or nylon to give a shiny appearance to the piece.
- Instead, go for vintage pieces that are more in line with the history of sukajan. Also, the shiny look will be somewhat diminished over time, which will help you wear it.
Sukajan stall in Yokosuna on Dobu Ita street.
In Paris
" If you want souvenir jackets from the 40s and 50s in Paris, it's impossible to find them, except by a miracle. You can find some from the 80s and 90s, but the fashion for GIs fell off in the late 80s and there weren't as many American bases in Asia after that."
So all that remains is to get one on the internet.
In Japan
I would dream of being able to bring it back from Japan. That would truly be, for me, the best way to choose it. I am putting this sweet dream aside for the moment, a trip to Yokosuka is not planned for the moment. But you, you never know, maybe you are there, you are going there soon, have a friend there who can take care of finding a nugget for you.
If you're going to Tokyo, Harajuku and Shibuya thrift stores are a good place to start. Otherwise, head to Nakano Broadway, Takeshita-Douri, Okuma Shoukai and Ameyoko market.
If you go to Yokosuka, you can't miss Dobu Ita Street, where you'll find stores like Prince Shokai and First Shokai in particular.
On the Internet
This is of course your hunting ground most likely to bring you results.
For a vintage piece (you should expect to pay around a hundred euros), you have Etsy , Ebay , Grailed and Japan Lover Me .
For something new (very variable in terms of price, depending on the work, the luxury reputation of the brand, so not necessarily always relevant), you have to look at e-shops like Mr Porter , Farfetch, End Clothing
Apart from the Japanese brands Efu Shokai, Switch Planning and Tailor Toyo, you have to look according to the seasons : Edwin , Levi's , The Real McCoy's , RRL , Beams+ , Studio D'Artisan , Blue Blue Japan and all Americana brands in general and Japanese workwear and military inspired brands.
Souvenir Bomber on the shelf, silk and velvet from The Real McCoy's , very beautiful but very expensive.
How to wear it?
What do you do when you're not a gloomy, statuesque American movie star? Well, I, who like to wear, from time to time, pieces that are out of the ordinary, wouldn't necessarily risk the souvenir jacket. Or else, a reversible one with a really sober side and a really artistic side.
In this jacket, there is a lot of audacity, and so you have to be sure of your personal style, of what it is, of what wearing this jacket will change in the perception that people have of you. With it, the disguise is close and you have to prepare to operate a distortion of your own image.
If you still want to wear it, and that's great!, then here's how to do it in my humble opinion:
- Contrast the shine of the jacket with rustic and matte materials: denim is perfect, cotton in general or wool for example.
- Keep the rest of your outfit simple: jeans, a t-shirt and... that's it.
- For shoes, I think that white sneakers specifically here wouldn't really work, because they would look too teenage. Thick derbies, inspired by workwear will do the trick. Or better: boots!
- Stick to a very limited color palette.
- Also to avoid: sunglasses that are too flashy, which could make the piece look vulgar or too flashy.
Example: if your souvenir jacket is in shades of navy blue and white (which I recommend), maybe it would be a good idea to wear it with raw jeans and a white t-shirt. Or even the other way around, white jeans and a navy t-shirt. This way, you have a cohesive outfit in which the souvenir jacket fits well.
This is crucial to not look disguised. This is the main pitfall of such a piece. Here's how to do it in a photo:
Here's what to do. Of course, the sweater tied at the waist like a fashion accessory is optional. As well as the hat, by the way. But without them, the outfit is easy.
Left: A simple outfit that matches the colors of the souvenir jacket. Typically what to do. Boots echo the jacket's military past and contrast with the delicacy of the shiny material. Right: The souvenir jacket with Pitti, white pants and loafers. It's a safe bet that he's wearing a t-shirt. That's how I'd wear it anyway.
Small selection
I can't resist suggesting a few of them to you, even if this jacket is mainly aesthetic, it will be up to each of us to fall in love with ours.
Reversible Souvenir Jacket from Kiriko Made , for $525
Souvenir Bomber from the Maharishi brand, which has the merit of offering a wearable jacket. £415
Souvenir Bomber Beams Plus x Tailor Toyo on Grailed in S for $240.
The final word...
Interesting story about the souvenir jacket, don't you think?
I wanted to write this article because pieces of this magnitude are rare in the men's wardrobe. And, I know that these days the shine of these jackets has somewhat faded, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to find my own sukujan. There's a good chance I'll never wear it, but it will be my personal superhero costume.
Finally, I wanted to ask you a question related to this jacket: do you really think that a piece of clothing, an outfit or clothing habits can faithfully reflect a personality? At what point can a piece of clothing express more than what it was created for, which is to protect?
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this last point and on the story of the souvenir jacket, of course!
