by IsaiahSchafer » Sat Feb 14, 2015 11:10 pm
Are you saying you think people's like for military-inspired gear is weird just on a personal level or as a whole? And I'm not sure how to interpret the imperialist connotation... is that for all gear? And has certain gear escaped connotation by this point? What about coats and things from WWII specifically? Wouldn't that be fetishizing more of a "noble" era or positive "imperialism"? (if you would call it that, since the U.S. joining was reactionary).
I dunno, I definitely don't share the same view, but am interested in exploring the idea of it. Just so many things are born out of of necessity before transferring to fashion. Chore coats, ball point pens (fashion??), certain types of parkas, removable linings (I think?), you know on and on. And I imagine for a lot of people, they don't like it because it's from the military originally, they just like it and it happens to be that the military has a history of making cool stuff.
There's obviously gonna be a point where it becomes distasteful-- eg propaganda-type pieces, wearing combat-type gear in certain locales/events, wearing modified gear with patches/indicators of valor or even just things that might historically indicate distaste for certain people (I dunno- did soldiers in vietnam ever mark gear to indicate kills or have any symbols with racist connotations?). I am a king rambler, but in summary: I feel there's a pretty obvious line between taking things that are practical and cool or fashionable in their own right outside of being militaristic and things that are going to have imperialism as part of its connotation.