The Real McCoy's Fall / Winter 2010

Nov 15, 2010

"All American Garments" is the title of The Real McCoy's Fall / Winter catalog, and it's a befitting title for the clothing they make. Similar to Buzz Rickson, The Real McCoy's focuses on reproducing vintage patterns with higher quality materials and construction. However, The Real McCoy's broadens their scope to include other timeless American garments outside the realm of militaria. Right now it seems like Superdenim and Blue in Green have the best stock this season.

— Images via Noble County Gold

5 comments:

andersonreed

its so bizarre that a japanese company is marketing US military garments to look like the clothing US soldiers wore around the time the US detonated the atomic bomb on japan. and that the company's name is a common american saying that expresses authenticity, when, in fact, there is nothing really real about the company themselves other than they have an idea about the contemporary "american heritage" market.

i'm not talking sh*t and i have zero opinion about the clothes, i just find it totally bizarre and frankly somewhat sad.

Noble County Gold

Nice post, and thanks for the credit.

RockinToes

Totaly agree with you andersonreed.

Just came back from a year in Tokyo, where I was surprised to see so many Japanese people sporting U.S military clothing.
However when asking my Japanese classmates about this, they seemed confused and told me they didnt see the problem. When digging a little deeper, I found out that most Japanese have no knowledge of WWII, the atomic bombings or the fact that they were with the Nazis.

Apparently they learn none of this in school, and its not talked about. Pretty scary stuff.

Anonymous

I think the "fetishism" with U.S. military apparel and Americana in general came from being occupied after WWII. Japanese children at the time saw U.S. servicemen in their towns during the reconstruction period and looked up to them. I believe the U.S. handled the majority of duties in Japan, whereas we had help in Germany and Italy.

The reason most current young Japanese are only slightly aware probably has to do with a shame factor. That may be why the history of the war isn't really taught to them.

Of course, these are all guesses on my part.

Anonymous

Folks, the history of WWII is certainly taught to Japanese students, albeit in a way that valorizes the Japanese war effort. (But it's no more skewed than the "Band of Brothers" view of the war most U.S. citizens espouse.) Yes, most people know whose side they were on, and yes, they are very familiar with the atomic bombings. In fact, post-war Japanese politics are largely an embodiment of the war and its conclusion -- one that continues to this day (victimization, de-militarization, pacifism, anti-nuke stance, Yoshida Doctrine, etc.). Sure, it's possible to find people who are ignorant. But I'm a professor of modern East Asian history, and I can't tell you how many students I have who don't know anything that happened in the world prior to 2001.

I don't think an interest in this kind of clothes means much at all. America does have an iconic status in Japan -- as it does all around the world -- but the nature of the fascination changes all the time. (For example, Western wear was all the rage not that long ago; Elvis is big too.) I don't think it's any different than NBA stars getting Chinese characters tatooed on their arms, even though the calligraphy is bad and they have no idea what the characters mean. What's the obsession? Who knows. It's different and interesting, that's all.

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