From Cool to Un-cool to Re-cool: Nehru and Mao tunics in the sixties and post-sixties West
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
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From Cool to Un-cool to Re-cool : Nehru and Mao tunics in the sixties and post-sixties West. / Langkjær, Michael Alexander.
Global Textile Encounters. ed. / Marie-Louise Nosch; Zhao Feng; Lotika Varadarajan. Vol. 20 Oxford : Oxbow Books, 2014. p. 227-236 (ancient textiles series, Vol. 20).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
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TY - CHAP
T1 - From Cool to Un-cool to Re-cool
T2 - Nehru and Mao tunics in the sixties and post-sixties West
AU - Langkjær, Michael Alexander
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - This chapter re-examines the vicissitudes of fashionableness of Nehru and Mao jackets in the 1960s-1970s West. The fashion dynamics of these jackets without lapels and featuring standing or high turn-down military-style collars calls for renewed investigation and a comparative analysis. Although scholarship of their Sino/Indic style antecedents is well developed, misperceptions as to sources and impulses behind their vogue (such as the Beatles’ having made the Nehru jacket popular following their trips to India in 1966/1968 or its having originated with a single celebrity designer like Cassini – or was it Féruch or Cardin?) stand in need of revision. Preliminary probing suggests some initial Nehru- and Mao-jacket awareness via mass circulation journals such as ‘National Geographic’ and ‘Life’. Also noted are stereotype references to the mystique of India and threat of China found in for instance James Bond films and the 1964-65 TV series ‘Jonny Quest’, and going back to ‘Fu Manchu’ yellow peril novels and cinema, and an austere, disciplined, quasi-martial silhouette that lends itself to the generic attire of masterminds and super-villains. How do all these aspects relate to one another? Everything suggests the initially ‘cool’ as opposed to later ‘un-cool’ (and the still later ‘re-cool’) connotations of these jackets have had little to do with their intrinsic qualities as apparel.
AB - This chapter re-examines the vicissitudes of fashionableness of Nehru and Mao jackets in the 1960s-1970s West. The fashion dynamics of these jackets without lapels and featuring standing or high turn-down military-style collars calls for renewed investigation and a comparative analysis. Although scholarship of their Sino/Indic style antecedents is well developed, misperceptions as to sources and impulses behind their vogue (such as the Beatles’ having made the Nehru jacket popular following their trips to India in 1966/1968 or its having originated with a single celebrity designer like Cassini – or was it Féruch or Cardin?) stand in need of revision. Preliminary probing suggests some initial Nehru- and Mao-jacket awareness via mass circulation journals such as ‘National Geographic’ and ‘Life’. Also noted are stereotype references to the mystique of India and threat of China found in for instance James Bond films and the 1964-65 TV series ‘Jonny Quest’, and going back to ‘Fu Manchu’ yellow peril novels and cinema, and an austere, disciplined, quasi-martial silhouette that lends itself to the generic attire of masterminds and super-villains. How do all these aspects relate to one another? Everything suggests the initially ‘cool’ as opposed to later ‘un-cool’ (and the still later ‘re-cool’) connotations of these jackets have had little to do with their intrinsic qualities as apparel.
KW - Faculty of Humanities
KW - Sixties Fashion
KW - Nehru tunics
KW - Mao tunics
KW - Fashion and ideology
KW - Mass circulation magazines and fashion
KW - Cross-cultural fashion activity
KW - James Bond and fashion
KW - Supervillains and fashion
KW - Jonny Quest and fashion
KW - Yellow peril and fashion
KW - Ravi Shankar and fashion
KW - Achkan and fashion
KW - China and fashion
KW - India and fashion
KW - National Geographic and fashion
KW - Mod style and fashion
KW - Lenny Bruce and fashion
KW - Biography of things
KW - Textiles
M3 - Book chapter
SN - 978-1-78297-735-3
VL - 20
T3 - ancient textiles series
SP - 227
EP - 236
BT - Global Textile Encounters
A2 - Nosch, Marie-Louise
A2 - Feng, Zhao
A2 - Varadarajan, Lotika
PB - Oxbow Books
CY - Oxford
ER -
ID: 129016850