Union Jacket

London's Impero Leather offers this fantastic tailed leather jacket, a steampunk answer to the postapocalyptic duster that the late Alexander McQueen designed for David Bowie in the 1990s.

It's rather expensive, yes.

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MORE: anglophilia • fashion • leather

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CaptainPedge

Expensive, yes, but that is one SEXY coat
http://BrianEaston.net/ Brian Easton

It’s like something a steampunk Captain Britain would wear.
phisrow

Does the price include an aether-propellant Martini-Henry and dirigible?
- http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza
  
  Totally Moorcock, isn’t it?
http://twitter.com/bittersweetdb db

Damn you for putting this link in front of me. Damn you.
winkybb

A link to a facebook site? I didn’t even know what I was looking at. I just hate facebook so much. I really do. I don’t understand it at all.
- http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt
  
  Re: F***book. You are not alone. Tried it for a month or so and ran away screaming. Pointless, boring and scarey all at once. Many actual users of it loath it yet are as addicted to it as smokers are to cigs. As to the jacket: I TOTALLY WANT IT!!!!
  - Ian Anthony
    
    Agreed. I hate reconnecting to and staying in touch with friends from across the country all on the same website and with incredible efficiency. I especially detest how there are varied privacy controls, so that the typical complaint of “everyone can see what I’m doing” is actually obsolete. And don’t even get me started on how the only information on Facebook is the information that you put there, so you don’t have anyone to blame but yourself if you post something embarrassing.
    
    Screw Facebook.
  - professor
    
    You can run from F***book, but you can’t hide… I did the same as you over a year ago and the b*ggers have resurrected my account again (probably fudging numbers for their IPO)
wibbled_pig

Nothing steampunk about that imho..
- Robert
  
  What, were you expecting gears?
  - wibbled_pig
    
    No, but just because it’s styled like an Admiral’s jacket from the days when boats had big sails doesn’t make it steampunk..
    - http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza
      
      If it’s after 1712 and before 1914, it’s steampunk.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        I thought it was 1782.
      - spacemunky
        
        If only they sold it for the low, low, steampunk price of 18.99
      - http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza
        
        Newcomen 4 lyfe.
rocketpjs

Were the British Army to make that their dress uniform I suspect recruitment would go up.

Also, a jacket like that demands the use of a monocle, and perhaps an improbably massive moustache.
- http://www.lightning-rose.com/ LightningRose
  
  Agreed. And despite the Union Jack, I think it requires a pickelhaube.Of course, in the alt-history world of steampunk, there’s no reason a pickelhaube couldn’t be worn by Brits.
Patrick Roach

Technically, it’s only called the Union Jack when it is flown at sea. Otherwise it’s the Union flag. So, unless the person wearing this is on a boat at sea, you’d probably have to refer to it as the union coat instead. :)
Jorpho

I reckon there’s already a barely-serviceable Asian knockoff out there for $50 or something.
- http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios
  
  If you find a link for one, please send it my way.
- C W
  
  Korean knockoff shops on Ebay are placing orders as we speak!
http://www.facebook.com/postelwait Cameron Postelwait

if you are wearing this and you are not famous for something, you will look silly.
- spacemunky
  
  If you are wearing this, it will make you famous.
coop

I have no idea where I’d wear this, more’s the pity…. but damn, it looks good.
http://twitter.com/meeware Ant Miller

You’d be pretty famous for wearing this!

I’ve never wanted a leather jacket or ANYTHING with the Union Flag on it- far to many nasty jingoistic associations- but for this, oh yes, for this I would gladly swathe myself in patriotic dead thing!
- phisrow
  
  Luckily, if you look inside the right breast pocket, interior, you’ll find an official letter of absolution, signed by the theological higher-ups of your choice and Her Britannic Majesty, for any uncomfortably retro acts of colonialism committed while wearing this coat.
TimmoWarner

That is the most beautiful jacket I have ever seen.
hassan-i-sabbah

Fancy Butcher’s Apron.
http://twitter.com/tom_hiles Tom Hiles

I don’t usually get excited about clothing OR our national flag, but that is NICE.
sickkid1972

Oh, if only I had a) The money to afford this thing, and b) the physique to pull it off… I’d live in the damn thing forever.
Bill Toenjes

Their entire eBay store
http://stores.ebay.com/Impero-London? is pretty incredible
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  This would go nicely with my thigh boots.
TheMadLibrarian

Dear god, I’m not anywhere I could wear something like that and I want it. It looks like something that one of the characters from Planetary should be wearing, or maybe John Constantine if he’s feeling particularly sarcastic.
Haroun

The Union Jack Jacket most likely owes a lot more to Pete Townsend’s version of it from the 60′s McQueens.
bibulb

This would be the most awesome Phonogram cosplay EVAR.
GyroMagician

Damn you BoingBoing – now everybody knows. I own a full length green leather coat from Tilly and Mumtaz and it’s spectacular.

Tilly is the creative genius, while Mumtaz comes from a family of tanners. Between them, they create beautiful items. And they’re quite happy to customize everything. If you have a chance, go and see them in London, if only for a look at the boutique. Although you may well come home with something!
http://www.mrericsir.com MrEricSir

This makes me want to move to England and buy a boat. As an American who is not a ship captain, I wouldn’t be able to get away with this jacket.
http://twitter.com/adamstjohn Adam StJohn Lawrence

Sigh. All that effort and then they get the flag WRONG. The white diagonals on the Union Flag are not all equally broad, and neither is it symmetrical on any axis, look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg
It is this non-symmetry and variation which makes the flag “live”. This otherwise lovely jacket misses a huge chance…
Guest

Wow that is one of the coolest leather coats I’ve seen in a while. I’d like to see one with an American flag like that!