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endurance remembers...I had the triple header.Mine was a reversible jacket,black and red down on one side,grey and red on the other.The ... More »
Posted on 10/08/07
PHOTOS:
In another tale of the functional becoming fashionable, down vests descended from the ski slopes to adorn the bodies of fashion-conscious lowlanders anywhere winter weather could be found.
It all started with skier Suzy “Chapstick” Chaffee, the 1968 Olympic bronze medalist who became a household name selling lip balm on TV. Suzy would appear in the commercials wearing a cute ensemble that included a down vest, an indispensable piece of gear among the ski-bunny set. This sleeveless wrapper allowed the total freedom of arm motion skiers needed, while keeping the body core warm with their quilted, puffy goodness.
It wasn’t long before non-skiers discovered the benefits of the armless wonder-jacket. With no sleeves it was much easier to throw a snowball at your pesky little brother, or that boy or girl you secretly liked. Besides, long winter coats and big, bulky jackets and parkas tended to come in drab colors, and it was much more fun to don a brightly hued vest with multicolored trim or racing stripes.
But didn’t you have to sacrifice a certain amount of warmth in return for your freedom of motion and zippy fashion? The debate goes on, but the answer is probably yes; clothing companies did, after a while, start to add zippered, detachable sleeves.
What we do know is that the down vest never completely went away, and it enjoyed a big revival in the 90’s when practically anything 70’s was coming back into style. (Platform shoes and bellbottoms returned too.) The new generation of half-jackets came in solid, steely modern colors, and were made with technologically advanced microfibers. But they couldn’t hide their origins - a sleeveless winter vest is a sleeveless winter vest no matter how you look at it!
