Pascal Lamy, Jacques Attali and Daniel Barenboïm wear the Mao jacket.
But is that the right term? Mao Zedong's jackets actually had a sort of shirt collar, which in tailoring vocabulary is called a signet collar. A shape that we find on many military clothing: more generous on Marshal Foch's coat, more closed and much higher on Lyautey's jacket. All these shapes are called drooping. The Grand Helmsman dressed in the tradition of Western military tailoring, like Stalin. The shape of its pockets proves it. You have to look at the young Mao to find him in traditional Chinese clothing, his neck encircled by a simple, rounded and high collar, finishing a changshan dress.
So, should we say mandarin jacket? Not sure. In the 1970s, a dual aesthetic governed the arrival of these jackets: the martial look taken up by science fiction and the Indian look appreciated by the avant-garde. The Anglo-Saxons speak…
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