Classic Comeback

The Bomber Jacket’s Street Gang Chic

Think ‘West Side Story’ Sharks and Jets and those hip jackets they wore while strutting down New York sidewalks, but this time in pink and pistachio.

Fashion loves a comeback, especially in the 21^st century. In these lightning fast times, familiarity has a way of comforting us as we make our way through unknown territory, and menswear loves to remix a classic.

The latest obsession in menswear is the return of the bomber jacket, a fact driven home emphatically by its presence on the spring 2016 runways of Ami, John Elliot, Salvatore Ferragamo, Fendi, and others. The current crop—made in cotton blends and ranging in everything from prints to soft pastels—recalls the tough attitudes of the rival New York City street gangs Sharks and Jets in the 1961 film West Side Story. That classic American musical focuses on a turf war on the streets of New York, but what’s so funny is the soft-color palette of the timeless classic clothes these tough guys wear: polos, t-shirts, sweatshirts, and fantastic bomber and blouson jackets. The latest crop of bomber jackets seem uncannily inspired by the Sharks and Jets, proving that more than ever tough guys can color boldly from pistachio to pink to lavender in the 21^st century.

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Wendell Brown

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