In this, Anderson contextualises the Napoleonic hussar jacket – highly decorative with frogging, gold buttons and embroidery and once worn by members of the cavalry during the era of the French emperor – into a desirable way of wearing clothes now. You could see this too in his first look for his men’s show with roomy cargo shorts that were actually a play on Monsieur Dior’s frilled 1948 Delft dress and a tweedy frock coat.
Also, Pete Doherty of the Libertines probably wants his jacket back.
Jean Paul Gaultier and John Galliano were similarly intrigued by the military jacket. Hedi Slimane turned them into the motif du jour of the indie sleaze moment when he was at Dior Homme in the early aughts – a time when everybody tried to look like Kate Moss by pairing them with thick black tights and biker boots. This is the very look threatening to come back. Trends are like that.
Mahalia Chang, style editor of British GQ, loves a military jacket. “I have a lot of envy for the minimalists in life, but I’m not one of them! I like my clothes to feel fun, and I dress to create characters, so I gravitate towards pieces with something to say,” she says. “Military jackets tick so many nice boxes: fussy and interesting, but fitted and sleek, with some history and heft to them.”
Chang feels we should never be surprised when a historical garment finds new-found relevance in the trend cycle. “It’s a fashion designer’s job to be inspired by the world around them and to interpret that inspiration into clothing. That’s what luxury companies hire creative directors to do. And designers have always looked to history for that,” she says.