My Soul-Cleansing Menswear Reset Continues With a Leather Jacket Obsession
This week's "Haute Garbaggio" thoughts and more!
Welcome to Haute Garbaggio, a (kind of) weekly series where I rant about various style thoughts. Please consider paying for a subscription here if you don’t even though this post is free because it’s not easy making money out here as an independent jawnz enthusiast! $6 a month is less than some Uniqlo underwear…and that shit is cheap!!!!
My Menswear Reset
They say you are what you eat, but to me, I am the content I create. I have a near-impossible time creating content that feels dishonest to me or what I’m actually feeling at a specific time. And as I’ve found my stride on TikTok with educating good honest folks about timeless menswear (while simultaneously pursuing incomparable influence in the jawnz arena) the stuff I like—or at least, the stuff I want to buy—is changing, too.
As I mentioned in a previous post, my Balenciaga spell was recently broken (perhaps due in some small part to Kanye’s mostly absence from the public eye). I feel relieved in some way not only because that shit is often offensively, hilarious expensive and I don’t have a full-time job at the moment (not that this fact will stop me from ranting about a $2,000 leather jacket in the next section), but because I know I simply look better in menswear that doesn’t veer too far off course from the classic. My algorithm has thus swapped meme-level shoes for the stuff I’m making videos about, which are often based in many of the same images (Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Miles Davis, the like) I saw when I first got into this whole clothes thing.
This aesthetic cleanse or whatever you want to call it feels great. If you’ve found yourself drowning in all kinds of fashion, sneakers, and general STUFF recently, I’d highly recommend it. It feels weightless to some degree to be off the hype train and re-inspired. I’m re-learning the nitty gritty of clothing, whether it’s how a T-shirt was made and the specifics of its cotton construction, or sleuthing down the exact jacket Jerry Seinfeld wore in “The Jacket” episode of his eponymous show. Forget big pants on the runway, then the small pants, then the pattern, then the solids, then the knits, then the jacquards, then the graphics, the logos, then the, as a wise man once said, yada yada, and just focus on good shit. At least that’s where my heads at right now. I’m a Gemini and reserve the right to change my mind next week, especially in this time of year.
Rationalizing a $2,000 Leather Jacket Is Actually Incredibly Easy
Available at The Real McCoys
All of that is to say, I’m drooling, thirsting even, for this Real McCoys A-2 leather bomber jacket. I’ve gone down serious rabbit holes on really poorly designed websites (always been ironic to me that dudes who care so much about cuff details can’t invest in a damn Wix) to learn exactly what goes into it, and read about the history of a dang jacket.
If I’m keeping it a buck, I never really thought much about this specific style of jacket until now. It was just another leather bomber with military history and beyond that, like, whatever. But clothes made with such care do this to you, which is part of the fun in lusting after them: You start reading about WW2 shit and how the jacket went out of production for a time and General Patton demanded he cop one even though he wasn’t a pilot (a true jawnz fiend FR), and all of the sudden spending money to access some of that authenticity sauce gets more and more appealing. In fact, the education is part of the joy of owning one, too. I forgot the feeling of getting excited about a garment so simple for like, a decade, and it feels good to return to the garments—and the content—where it all began.
Anyway, this jacket from the Real McCoys, a brand founded in the 90s in Japan and which then, according to lore, got mixed up with the Yakuza before getting relaunched at the beginning of the millennium. They are the quintessential Japanese workwear brand in that they stop at nothing to recreate period-correct pieces like very few if any American brand does (or at least not with their same intensity). This pursuit of perfection is exciting to behold, like watching a guy who buys an old Ford Mustang that was modified beyond recognition source the OEM parts to bring it back to stock form. Look at him go!
Not only is horsehide specifically sourced for the brand, but the authentic Talon zippers were recreated just for this piece, as well as the old-school wool ribbing (no nylon here!) at the cuffs and waist. They did update the fit to be slightly more modern (which if I’m being real I have mixed feelings about), but in terms of chasing perfection, knowing there are people out there doing this kind of work is in some weird way comforting. I may not always buy the stuff, but the fact that there are people out there preserving garment history with this level of seriousness is nice.
I also am a sucker for top quality customer service, which is why I often overspend on dumb things like flight upgrades and spa treatments because I want to be pampered. I bring this up because like owning a Rolls Royce, the Real McCoys takes care of you by taking care of your jacket—if shit ever goes wrong with this (say, a broken zipper or ripped cuff), they’ll fix it for you at their Kobe headquarters no questions asks. Maybe that isn’t unique, but in a world of disposable clothing, it sure feels like it!
This leads me to the final rationalization for buying this jacket, which clearly isn’t top of mind but deserves a shout. It’s starts with the line we were all told back in 2008—buy less, but buy better. I think this time it has even more meaning to me, now 30, having witnessed menswear completely lose itself to the vice grip of fast-fashion as climate change continues to basically be ignored (often by me, I’m not a god damn Saint). Capitalism is cunning, and impossible to stop…so dudes succumbing to $40 Zara shirts and their knockoffs of the latest runway pieces isn’t anyone’s fault. All I’m saying is if there were ever a jacket to fit the bill for decades of ownership and someday achieve heirloom status, this one is surely a good contender, right?
So, Now What?
Obviously I don’t have just $2,000 sitting around for this shit. If anything I’m much closure to being completely broke (did I mention you can support me by signing up for a paid subscription) than being able to buy it. So it’ll have to wait.
I’m also not forsaking fashion in general forever. I’m just saying what I’m into right now is, for my own sanity, not paying attention to it for a minute and re-committing myself to the clothes that I think I look best in because most dudes look best in them. I don’t need to be the coolest MFer on the internet (not that I EVER was, I’ve always been transparently a fucking DORK), and trying to do so brings me little to no joy!