Full metal jackets

Picture it: New Jersey, late '80s, early '90s.

I was inspired by a friend known on flickr as East Beast to post a loving tribute to the rock jackets we all wore in high school. ("We" meaning my friends and family of a certain age.) Read the story behind Diego Montoya's glorious wearable monument to Helloween, pictured above, here.

I thought, hell(oween), this should be simple, I'll ask bff Patty to send a photo of our buddy Chris' jacket (black acid wash, so it looked light gray from afar). She bought it from him when he turned alternative toward the end of high school, grew out his shaved-on-the-sides, long-on-the-top-and-back metal cut to an all-one-length 'do, and started wearing big Ned's Atomic Dustbin T-shirts and baggy pants. Chris' jacket was a pretty specacular example of rocker outerwear. I believe it also had a small Helloween patch, as well as a full-size Iron Maiden backpatch, possibly some sort of King Diamond pins? But the best part were the four patches of each face of the guys from KISS going down one arm, each in a different color. Bad ass.

Well, a certain bff Patty of mine seems to have misplaced this important relic. So I turned to Chris' good buddy Pete who is also my brother in law; he would surely be able to send me pictures of his old jean jacket (adorned with a Metallica patch, I think, or was it Rush?) from the days when he had a big mullet that made him look like Geddy Lee. No answer. Hmph. Looks like somebody is too "busy" with his two-month-old "daughter."

So I turned to my big brother...surely he would not let me down in my hour of want need, and would send me pictures of that jacket on which he'd painted the Aerosmith logo across the back with Led Zeppelin ZoSo symbols underneath. (With the same fabric paint, I'd painted the Guns 'n' Roses crest on my bookbag.) No answer to my emails, and to my desperate plea via text message, his only response was, "beer party." (This favorite old phrase of ours is not indicative of his current lifestyle at all, being a family man himself.)

And so, it is down to Lioux, and it is down to me. Although he couldn't find his denim rock jacket, CoKanes Bloggery bff Lioux immediately rose to the occasion by sharing this Halloween photo featuring what might have been the only wearing of a fringed jacket that he'd bought on a whim. Fitting, since this jacket is full of whimsy.



His bff Jodi there was going as the "Thanks for the ride, lady" guy from the hit movie Creepshow 2™®©. I say: best costume of 1987.

Moving on to yours truly.



I realize now that this acid-washed wonder already had a lot going for it: distressed corduroy cuffs and collar, triangular-arm cut, and a rather busy amount of seams and pocket pleats. But as additional adornment, we also have one pewter Bon Jovi logo pin, two Bon Jovi face buttons, a Hard Rock Cafe button, and yes, that is a Winger button. There once were more on there, like a giant ASK ME ABOUT BON JOVI button that'd I'd gotten from Bon Jovi lady at the Sunday flea market, but they've fallen to the bottom of my Bon Jovi obsession box.



Why did I choose to center this patch in the middle of my back instead of at the top? Clearly I was making a lot of questionable judgment calls back then, although it might well have been so my hair wouldn't block it.

And who remembers the Jon Bon Jovi/ Richie Sambora "Wanted"/"Blaze of Glory" Western-inspired short and full-length leather coats trend? This girl does.



Please note the silver Western details and the double-bellied 4-snap closure. Obvs this coat was my pride and joy. I shan't tell you his name.



Considering how many of my friends used to rock this way, this post is a pretty freaking sad showing. DEATH TO FALSE METAL! Nah, I suppose everybody's got other priorities now...and nothing metal can stay.



(Note that although the jeans above are modern-day, they are pegged.)


CoKane photos by Annie Dweebovitz