Friday, June 28, 2019

Sukajan ... Yokosuka's Bomber Jacket

One of the America things which has sort of worked its way into Yokosuka's (and Japan's) cultural fabric is the  "Sukajan"  スカジャン

You can read more about it here:

https://www.nippon.com/en/guide-to-japan/gu900245/

Yokosuka Original

Emblazoned with intricately embroidered images of fierce tigers, glowering hawks, smoldering dragons, and myriad other creatures, Japan’s iconic satin bomber jackets are eye-catching items. Known as sukajan, their distinct designs—an amalgam of Japanese and American fashion—have garnered generations of loyal fans and inspired versions by the likes of Louis Vuitton and Gucci.

Sukajan have evolved to become their own fashion genre, but their roots can be traced back to a shopping arcade in the Honchō district of Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture. It was along Dobuita Street, which sits at the doorstep of a major US naval base, that “Yokosuka jumpers”—later shortened to sukajan—first appeared in the early postwar period.


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Basically, in the late-1940's, during the U.S.-led Occupation of Japan, local merchants in Yokosuka used brightly-colored cloth pieces from kimonos to sew-together jackets and shirts .... The jackets came to be called Sukajan, using the "suka" from Yokosuka and "jan", short for jumper (jacket)



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