Item 2019.77 - BodyMap Jacket with Print by Hilde Smith

Short cotton jacket printed in an all-over black and white check pattern. The jacket has a wide turn down collar and lapel, the collar is overlaid with black rib cotton. Small button loop on the edge of the left lapel. The same black rib cotton is used to bind the large cut-out holes under each arm.

The jacket can be fastened with a silver coloured metal buckle at the bottom left front edging and strap on the right side seam. There are two large silver coloured metal buckles, one on each side seam, which fasten to wide tabs with metal eyelet holes for adjustment. Vertical welted inset pockets at the waist on the far sides of the front panels. BodyMap label with hand print motif in back of the neck.

White cotton has been printed with the design in black to create the pattern.
Country of Design: England
Country of Manufacture: England

Invisible Men exhibition label:

PRINTED BIKER JACKET AND LYCRA SHORTS
BodyMap
1984-1985

Featuring a print by Hilde Smith called Cosmic Check, this biker jacket was purchased from BodyMap’s Camden Market stall and is from their collection Barbie Takes a Trip Around Nature’s Cosmic Curves. Lycra transitioned from sportswear to a fashion fabric partly due to the explosion of aerobic fitness of the late 1970s and was adopted to produce body-conscious garments designed for London’s pansexual nightclubbers.

Cotton, nylon, elastane
Archive no. 2019.77 and 2017.039