William Gibson bags and coats
Cyberpunk science fiction pioneer William Gibson has lent his name to some very cool bags and jackets (and sneakers). The products are a joint effort of two Japanese firms, bag company Porter, and Buzz Rickson, remakers of vintage military clothing. The William Gibson Collection from Buzz Rickson includes a black M-65 field jacket, N-3 flying jacket, and N-1 deck jacket. Buzz Rickson jackets (scroll down for Gibson Collection items), Porter bag info (Cool Hunting)
UPDATE: In the comments, Doctor Popular points out that Self Edge in San Francisco has the bags and sneakers for sale and are hosting a party with Gibson in person on 11/9.
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Argh, why can't they make this for the layman Gibson-Cyberpunk aficionado instead of the one with a thousand bucks lying around.
Someone should get to Etsy with these stylistic cues and thrift store jackets for a fraction of the cost...
This was only a matter of time I suppose, since his last two books were basically just hundreds of pages of product placements.
Gibson wrote about a black Buzz Rickson flight jacket in Pattern Recognition, and lo and behold the exact jacket was available to buy. Now I fully expect to see characters in his upcoming books to be dressed in black Buzz Rickson M-65s.
I quite like the deck jacket offered there, but not $645 worth of liking.
FYI, Gibson will be at Self Edge in San Francisco promoting his new line.
http://www.selfedge.com/2008/10/buzz-rickson-william-gibson-athletic.php
Look at those huge labels on the outside of the bags (take a look at the bigger photos on their site). I think these products would fail Gibson's own Cayce Pollard cool test. At the very least, Pollard would have to rip the labels off. I think I would also. I think the unofficial William Gibson products are better at Muji.
But does the Rickson come complete with the cigarette burn in the shoulder?
#3 - http://www.google.com/products?q="N-1+Deck+Jacket"
Porter bags are excellent! I have been using a porter bag for about a year now, and it is amazing how the pockets are just the right size for everything.
This is really cool. I would want one, but I love my current porter bag too much. XD
I hate myself because this really is a bit naff but I really want.
Call me when the Gibson Taoist Tanto comes on sale.
But no fishtail parka with a large roundel on the back, also mentioned in Pattern Recognition.
Those prices are pretty ridiculous. But as big a fan as I might be of Gibson, I wouldn't buy them due to this:
"The hood is trimmed in very expensive and luxurious genuine wolf fur. Wolf (and coyote) fur were long ago test proven to be the best material to use for wicking away moisture that may freeze on the trim of hooded jackets intended for wear in snowy conditions..."
Get real. No one who buys one of these jackets needs them to keep warm at the extreme climate ranges of planet earth. No one. Not one. These are fashion statements only.
So why are we supporting the use of real fur? Synthetic would have done just fine.
Anything you can sell to a rat you can sell to a human being. And you can sell most anything to a rat.
#12 FTW.
Do they come in dead-TV-channel color?
#11 Not all of us live in California. In Northern Canada (and Alaska, for that matter) much of the winter requires a significant thermal commitment from pedestrians. Unless you drive from heated garage to heated garage fur is one of the best ways to keep warm.
That said maybe only fans in California are swish enough to put down that kind of money on a jacket. If you really need to keep warm get a parka.
Amazing. When I read Pattern Recognition I assumed the Buzz Rickson jacket was a brand Gibson made up, because the whole idea seemed so outlandish...
@shanghaied #2
Actually, Gibson goofed up while writing Pattern Recognition, as he had seen the Buzz Rickson's flight jacket and wanted to include it in the story, but forgot that it was never available in black.
As detailed here, the company issued a special-edition black Buzz Rickson's after the book came out, due to sudden and confusing demand for a product that never existed.
Seems like sort of a cool instance of reverse-product-placement to me.
jeezs, at those prices I think I'm going to look for the download...
I feel the same way about this as the John Lydon butter commercial. After a certain amount of contributions, a guy's entitled to cash in. Good for him. Artists have to eat too, and spinoffs like this are just one more way for fans to show their appreciation. Can't say I'll be contributing, but TrueFans are part of the market ecology.
Good god - talk about a monster profit margin!
@RADIOGUY #17
"reverse-product-placement"
Funny you should say that actually.
I've actually heard about Buzz Rickson before Pattern Recognition came out, and knew that they were a company that made faithful reproductions of WWII US uniform items. Like any sane university student who can't afford to blow five-six hundred dollars on a jacket, I drooled at some of the cool stuff they had and moved on.
A couple of years ago I came across the Buzz Rickson website again, and what do I see? Yes, a so-called William Gibson collection of all-black clothing, which seemed odd since they never made any black stuff before, as far as I could remember.
So a little search on the internet tells me that the black flight jacket is featured in one of his new books which I vaguely remember hearing about. Soon after that I bought and read Pattern Recognition.
So the product Gibson placed in his book actually led me to read his book.
Reverse-product-placement indeed.
@#18 (Radioguy): Another example of reverse product-placement is the red Swingline stapler from Office Space - the production staff custom painted a number of standard black Swingline staplers, but it wasn't until 2002 that Swingline actually released a red version. (Source: http://www.techcomedy.com/www.redswinglinestapler.com//history.php)
Maybe I've become boring in my old age, but it's been my opinion for several years that any adult who wears clothing with military insignia on it, when they weren't issued to him or her by a branch of the military, looks kind of like a doofus. When you're 19, maybe you can get away with it. When you're over 25 or so, it's like: hey Village People! How are things at the YMCA these days?!
@cowboy_k
That's cool -- I wasn't aware of the background on the stapler. Of course, the red swingline is such an immediately iconic item, bringing up instant mental images of Milton Waddams.
@12
wolverine works better
in Pattern Recognition, the only brand Cayce wasn't allergic to was Luggage Label, which funnily enough is one of Porter's major competitors in Japan.
I've been wearing military surplus clothing ever since my cousin gave me his old Vietnam ERDL pattern clothing in the 70's.
Military surplus is cool because of two things; It's good. It's cheap.
I have 3 M-65 field jackets and the most I've paid is $60 with liner for a brand new black one. $500 is ridiculous. I wouldn't pay that much for the one Stallone wore on screen in First Blood. I wouldn't care if Elvis wore it. If you pay that much for a fake military surplus coat you're automatically un-cool.
@11 ... The fishtail parka is the best winter coat I've ever worn. They're really cheap since they're made to wear over packs...a small will fit a large guy. $40 new for the genuine issue. I wear one hunting in the Adirondack mountains with matching trigger finger mittens at temps down to -20f. I even had the fur replaced with mink, by a seamstress friend who had some left over.
I think I'll hold out for the Sally Stanley shirts, personally...