My problem with most comic book apparel is that it’s ugly. It’s all ugly faces, awkward logos, faux faded, and completely lacking in any real design sense. Graphitti Designs is a tremendous offender in this respect. It looks like kid clothes.

Freshness Mag posted about a neat bit of comics apparel yesterday. From their site:

Italian comic strip creator, Hugo Pratt, swept the world in 1967 with the Corto Maltese comic series, featuring an eponymous adventurer-sailor, Corto Maltese. Tying in with the current exhibition at Musée National De La Marine, Colette replicated two models (court and length) of sailor jackets donned by protagonist, Corto Maltese. These sailor jackets are included in the Fall/ Winter 09 Hugo Pratt Corto Maltese collection which is on preview at Colette from May 25 to May 31.

The wool sailor jackets are exact replicas of the coats that Maltese wore, in a vintage faded black. The forearm is adorned by a navy and gold ribbon pipping and the underside of the collar has Corto Maltese’s name embroidered in cursive. On the inside, a patch featuring Maltese’s profile portrait is sewn to the coat. The nautical inspired winter jacket is tailored and smart, and there are more styles to choose from the collection. Other items include a longer wool sailors coat, a bomber-inspired jacket and a t-shirt. The pieces are now available online at Colette.

A couple of images:

This is the kind of thing I prefer to something that just says “HEY WORLD I READ COMICS LOOK AT ME AIN’T HAL JORDAN AWESOME?” I hate it, but I’d rather see someone wearing a jacket designed like Hal Jordan’s Dad’s Bomber Jacket That He Almost Died In rather than a shirt with Hal Jordan in a circle. A gym shirt that says “PROPERTY OF XAVIER’S” is much better than something with the ’90s-era X-Men logo on it, or any X-Men logo, really.

I don’t know that I’d ever wear this jacket, but it’s nice to see some comic fashion that actually tries to be fashion, instead of a twenty dollar t-shirt with a logo on it.

Colette’s site is here.

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