ID Lennon's jacket!

[TheJonesBoy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2A_vKN2uRY

Almost certainly Levis - but model?

Also, best way to get that fade?

Cheers!

[40ozprophet]

How Do I Make Fade??!!

[TheJonesBoy]

Not sure your post is getting through clearly - if it's an attempt at humour have another go at the queen's English sir.

[ang_kangkong]

Don't really get a good shot of the details of it. Could it be just a type 2? Do you see pleats close to the placket?

[edwardsebastian]

I believe it is a 50's Wrangler jacket - you can clearly see that there are pleats along the back of the shoulder area - unlike a Levi's 507xx. Also, Lennon's jacket clearly has a double pleat along the front - Levi jackets only have a single pleat. I think he is wearing the same jacket in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAjdRHzH4M8

Here is a photo, I believe the model is called 111MJ:

[englandmj7]

Iron Heart !!!>>!>!

[denihilist]

How Do I Make Fade??!!

get out of my head...

[TheJonesBoy]

I believe it is a 50's Wrangler jacket - you can clearly see that there are pleats along the back of the shoulder area - unlike a Levi's 507xx. Also, Lennon's jacket clearly has a double pleat along the front - Levi jackets only have a single pleat. I think he is wearing the same jacket in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAjdRHzH4M8

Here is a photo, I believe the model is called 111MJ:

Great shot - that's the one.

Solved as Paul T's book landed after I posted and he confirms.

Lennon later went for a Type III Levis (in the "New York City" phase.

PS it's "11MJ".

[TheJonesBoy]

Don't really get a good shot of the details of it. Could it be just a type 2? Do you see pleats close to the placket?

I was sure it was a Type 2 - but we have solved it using the Stones' R&R Circus clip and Paul T's mighty tome!

[theLorax]

im pretty sure that his son sean is in the posession of that jacket. he's on myspace. ask him.

[fardin]

well i dont think its the 11mj. its the 40mj from maverick blue bell ,wich was owned by wrangler. the difference is that the wrangler has the w stiching on the pocket and the mavrick does not. u can see that johns jacket in the video with jagger has no stiching on the pocket.

here is the maverick 40mj

http://shop.yumetenpo.jp/goods/d/pants-shop-avenue.com/g/MaK4400Used/index.shtml#

[fardin]

another detail is that the jacket he wears does not have a waist buckle adjuster, wich both jackets have. just a detail, maybe a sound a bit anal about it, but u wanted to know . anyway both the wrangler and the maverick are nice jackets

[Paul T]

I'm pretty certain it's the 11MJ - or, at least, the guy who oversees the recent Blue Bell reissues was. There are good quality pics of the jacket, from a photog called harry Goodwin. I might have more info but it's on another machine that's in for repair.

Wrangler apparently opened a showroom on the Kings Road around 1968 and that's where he bought it from, around the time they were recording the White Album - I don't think there's any chance you could have got hold of a Maverick in the UK in the 60s.

[TheJonesBoy]

another detail is that the jacket he wears does not have a waist buckle adjuster, wich both jackets have. just a detail, maybe a sound a bit anal about it, but u wanted to know . anyway both the wrangler and the maverick are nice jackets

It's not possible to be 'too' anal about the Beatles :-)

The solution will be a trawl through the Anthology DVD methinks. Now I have a better idea what I am looking for (ie the differences between the jackets) I'll have a peek...

[fardin]

ur right

specially with the beatles, so u better listen to paul, althought the maverick jacket is really nice too. hey maybe u should get the 101 lee jacket from 1937 , wich would be great since u already got the lee 101j, dont forget to post pics of it, and by pauls BOOK on the beatles lol

[TheJonesBoy]

Wrangler apparently opened a showroom on the Kings Road around 1968 and that's where he bought it from, around the time they were recording the White Album - I don't think there's any chance you could have got hold of a Maverick in the UK in the 60s.

Of course Lennon would have had the celebrity status needed to secure something kinky and had of course been stateside by then (and been a denim fan since Hamburg).

I wonder if a previous photo exists with it in a less worn/aged state a year or two earlier? (I'll be looking!).

Rubber Soul (Released December 1965) sees the Beatles in denim (reverse of the sleeve has a 'cowboy' George).

Help sees them in their Lees - the reissued 101 jeans and jacket has the gear as '1966' but the Swedish promo shot is from the fliming of Help on Providence Island in the Bahamas http://beatleshelp.50megs.com/photos/agsteps1.jpg (the actual Lee Sweden shot is from the day they filmed the sequence for 'Another Girl') - this was in Feb 1965, but I digress!

It's possible they had grabbed a load of gear in the US - ergo the dating of any UK availability may be a red herring - what sort of time frame we looking at the help us further?

He could have cut the buckles off the rear as well...

(apologies if I'm enjoying this more than I should).

[TheJonesBoy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGakPl8a0eA ANother Girl - Help footage (doesn't help the jacket poser but shows the gear that Lee Sweden promoted and proves the date of their stuff was pre 66).

[fardin]

yeah,

i was wondeing about the shoot when i opend the thread too.

on corbis and getty images there are a couple of pics from the shoot in bahamas for the film help. but lee claims that they did a promo shoot for lee wih the jacket on, wich not even paul had heared of, so i am wondering too. anyway its nice they have another orginal lee 101j jacket, besides the beautiful one from 1946, its the most underrated jacket here in this thread.

best

[TheJonesBoy]

The image that Triads have is deffo from that sequence and not (IMO) specifically posed for Lee Sweden (any idea if that's the actual shot Lee are on about?)

http://www.triads.co.uk/images/products/1180517336-86023300.jpg

PS re Paul's Beatles book - got that, had it ages - great book (as is his denim one0.

[Paul T]

Talking of being a nerd... I checked the shot I was thinking of, and there is a 'W' on the front pockets.

You can only see a thumbnail on this summary, but I did check the high rez:

http://www.redferns.com/propxt/main/search_string~artid:17114::/ltext~Yoko%20ONO

and more about Harry Goodwin, who was the Top of the Pops photog, here...

http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk/news/s/228/228199_imagine_that.html

Incidentally, I found Fardin's reasoning v convincing, it was the fact someone at Blue Bell told me that I was pretty sure it was the Wrangler, not the Maverick.

[TheJonesBoy]

and more about Harry Goodwin, who was the Top of the Pops photog, here...

http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk/news/s/228/228199_imagine_that.html

Nice. Speaking of snappers (off topic re denim but Beatles related) I've actually spent an evening with Bob Whittaker at his Chelsea studio thumbing through his Beatles photos - that was some evening (for a Beatles nut) I can tell you!

[Paul T]

He's a very cool guy.

I'm not a total Beatles nut, but one of the things I noticed at my old mag is that we would never get bored of looking at The Beatles. Somehow they always looked cool, even in their cheery early days. Apart from one photo we had pinned up on the wall, of John Lennon after five too many beers, none of them ever seemed to take a bad picture.

[TheJonesBoy]

The bit most people miss when they go for the coolness of dissing the Fab Four is that it wasn't a machine that made them (although there was a machine eventually that killed them I guess!) it was the heady mix of 4 compelling characters. Watch Hard Days Night for a certain level of proof. Also the fact they shot to fame so fast but didn't appear to be consumed by that fame - ie they appeared normal for a long time after many others would have changed beyond belief.