Bomber Jackets

Jim Rice, British Movement, Welling, Kent, 1980 (© Jim Rice WWW.LONDONPHOTO.CO.UK)

Much has been written by more knowledgeable folk about the development of the flying jacket (see links at the end), its use in male fashion and by Hollywood. I am most interested in the bomber’s appropriation by girls and will therefore restrict myself to the basics. Early aviation jackets were made of leather but during World War II there apparently was a need for something warmer and less bulky. The first incarnation of the bomber as we know it seems to be the MA-1 which began to be issued to US military at the end of the 1950s. Made of sage-green or blue nylon, a later incarnation could be worn inside out so that the ‘blaze orange’ or ‘international orange’ lining could alert rescue missions to stranded pilots. Alpha Industries claim that the MA-1 was made almost exclusively by them, but then they would say that, wouldn’t they? If you want to see how best to team a bomber jacket with a tight dress, have a look at Marilyn Monroe who does just that in 1954.

We do not have a flying/bomber jacket in the collection so I was looking through our Historic Photographs instead. The earliest image I could find which seemed to show something related is this photo by Bob Collins, probably from the late 1950s.

Alpha Industries bomber jacket, via Ebay

In 1977 Alpha launched the CWU-36/P for summer and the CWU-45/P for winter which are still in use. Made of ‘Nomex’ the jackets have a turn-down collar rather than the knit standing collar of the MA-1, which has always been my own personal favourite. The orange lining has been abandoned and the pockets are different, among other changes. According to Alpha Industries’ website, it was in the mid-1970s that ‘surplus jackets’ (at that point still the MA-1) began to be sold through Army Navy stores to ‘the public’. The word surplus is slightly misleading, I think, as it seems Alpha made ever so slightly different jackets for ‘commercial customers’ which were distinguished by three lines in the label. I wonder whether the particular date of the jackets dissemination to non-army people had anything to do with the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. You can still buy MA-1s worn in Vietnam on ebay, as seen here.

Dick Scott-Stewart, A group of skinheads pose for the camera, c. 1980 (© Dick Scott-Stewart Archive)

This seems the right moment to mention skinheads, which I am doing somewhat reluctantly as their history is rather complicated and I am bound to get it wrong. As Robert Elms writes in his sartorial biography The Way We Wore: ‘Unlike the genesis of mod, the start of the skinhead era is little documented or debated’ (p. 59). Following his account (there might have been different trajectories depending on where you lived) ‘peanuts’, the name of the earliest type of skins, began to appear in the late 1960s. They picked elements from Mod – predominantly the neat- and sharpness – and mixed it with some stuff of their own. Rather than a flying jacket, the self-respecting skin seems to have hankered after a Crombie or a Harrington jacket and also at some point a jean jacket. I have the feeling the MA-1 only entered the skinhead sartorial repertoire in the late 1970s. It is not mentioned in Resistance through Rituals published in 1975, nor in the bible: Dick Hebdige’s Subculture: The Meaning of Style form 1979. One of the skins in Dick Scott-Stewart’s photo below from around 1980 seems to wear a type of bomber jacket although probably not an MA-1.

Katharine Hamnett, Blouson and Mini-Skirt, early 1990s?

While the Museum of London does not own an MA-1 (hint, hint) we did acquire a Katharine Hamnett bomber-ish jacket with a hoody, which I have yet to accurately date. I had first thought late 1980s but I now believe early 1990s is more likely. I would have loved to have worn the entire outfit, black roll neck sweater, Wolford tights, Shelley ankle boots and all. (From the most recent crop I most like Mario Schwab’s offering, although it is maybe a tad literal.)

I did not want to end there but rather with a clipping which I have kept faithfully for the last 25 years. It is a 1988 Junior Gaultier advertisement featuring not only a beautiful bomber but also a fabulous model.