Last night, we arrived at a friend’s party wearing our blue J. Crew blazer. A blonde party fizzer bobbed up. Her name was Elizabeth and she was British, a writer for NME magazine.
“I love your jacket!” she exclaimed. “Is it inspired by The Prisoner?”
The what?
“You know, The Prisoner? That cult TV show from the ’60s? It’s sort of like Lost, this secret agent is stuck on a mysterious island, and he only wears one jacket. It looks just like yours!”
We found a laptop and saw she was right - The Prisoner costume from the 1967 TV show looks like a perfect hybrid of the Balenciaga blazer and its J. Crew acolyte. It’s such a part of sci-fi culture that even The Simpsons have spoofed the coat’s long cut, signature lapel, and white piping.
What’s funny is The Prisoner is a huge cult hit in the UK and Australia, and it’s often considered the originator of Sci Fi serial dramas like Twin Peaks and Heroes - not that most fashion people will camp in front of their flat screens for those shows (or at least, they’ll never admit it).
Meanwhile, Nicolas Ghesquire claimed his inspiration for the blazer, and the rest of his Fall collection, spawned from a fantasy of multicultural girls meeting in dorm rooms.
Maybe he failed to mention that all those girls in his head were card-carrying members of the Audio Visual squad…
posted by Cynthia C
Nov 12, 2007 9:59AM
The Balenciaga jacket and the J.Crew version actually remind me of prefect (senior students appointed and elected by the rest of the student body and faculty...often a huge popularity contest.) jackets at my alma mater. Never was one, so I never got one.