Snake America Seventy One
Snake is a bi-weekly newsletter covering after-market salable goods. This week: a barnstormer jacket from the 1940s and a Wendy's-and-Coca Cola G-shock watch. Subscribe.
eBay: Horsehide leather barnstormer coat, 1940s, $999 BIN: Even in August no one can have enough jackets. But what is this one? I've wanted what I think is this model for four years since seeing one on a guy shopping at the Manhattan Vintage Clothing Show in 2010, at like ... 5th and 20th. The guy, who was old, also had on what looked like slim Payday jeans with a yellow fade and a sun-bleached red sweatshirt. The jacket was brown but the same length as this one, three-quarters. Was it single- or double-breasted? Which is this? I really don't know. Consistent attempts by the narrator since then to determine that model and acquire it have been fruitless. The cut and leather from what I remember date the jacket to the 1940s. Further research says it's either a barnstormer, which is not an official term but a catch-all for leather barn jackets, or a leather deck coat. Most leather deck coats from the 1940s latter have a Nazi affiliation and so I won't wear them. Even more curious is that the three-quarter-length leather jackets from the 1940s now take on an unfortunate Donnie Brasco (USA 1997) aesthetic. Something happened that a leather coat worn in tanks, on boats, barns etc. is now associated with wearing bellbottoms and pointy boots and having sideburns. How does that happen? The horsehide collar looks in the photo like it's four inches across, which is the width of a peaked lapel. I guess that's how. What a shame. There is no way to get the 1970s association undone short of a wardrobe-accurate blockbuster movie about Nazi sailors and the formal American farmers who hunted them. Both would be wearing jackets that look like this. This bridge will be crossed, but I don't see how.
eBay: NIB Wendy's Coca-Cola G-shock-type watch, $25: Man, what a cool watch. It appears to be a promotional item with bells and whistles, good ones. The detail befits a collaboration between two of the pre-eminent American corporations of the past 50 years. This looks like an original Casio G-shock, which is the long line of rugged sport watches the Japanese company produced for swimmers/soldiers/astronauts/hikers etc. G-shocks look like watches Sears used to keep behind the counter, but better. G-shocks have a collector following and have seen collaborations with different principals. (I think Bape was first. The current roster of European collaborators includes Margiela, the fashion designer, Supra, the sneaker brand, and Eminem, the former rapper. Past collaborations have included Britain's Royal Air Force and some snowboard companies). The first G-shock is from 1983 but it doesn't look like the collaborative models. I think the best and most representative model is the Frogman(1). A Frogman 30th anniversary model went for $3,600 this month. The only other more expensive auctions for G-shocks recently were metal/silver. Why would you buy an adult/metal G-shock? This Wendy's watch has as good a silhouette as any Frogman or debatably any Rolex. I was reading a book today about brownstone renovations and in it this guy who bought a three-storey house, with a basement, in Boerum Hill gut renovated the thing and added another storey. All the floors now have direct sunlight and somehow there's more square footage. I don't unnderstand it and I can't imagine the expense or time commitment ... but someone with an abiding interest in chronometry and the means would be as well-served to buy the abovementioned, ship it to Zurich with a blank check and get the works. This thing needs to have the guts and features of each and all of the best watches of the past forty years. Can this tell the true time in every Chinese time zone? It can now. If Wendy's and Coca Cola are combining efforts and investments in the interest of their fans and consumers they deserve to have their product tell time exact to the absolute millisecond and to be able to withstand record-setting dives off the Maldives and to time what time the dry cleaner guy is going to come by at.
Thanks for reading.
Snake
Last Snake: Sold items compendium (Sold!)
Snake Before That: Prince Benetton hard-shell suitcase, metallic orange Nike Air Jordan Is (Relisted, sold)
(1) I guess the Gulfman and Mudman are identical.