Searching for a new look for this spring that’s light, simple, and proletarian? Well, Uniqlo has just the thing!
The Japanese fashion brand has introduced a new “military jacket” for its spring collection that appears taken straight out of Mao Zedong’s old wardrobe with khaki coloring and four front pockets.
In this jacket’s defense, it also comes in both black and navy blue and the pants are sold separately, also in different colors, so a different combination might not make it look quite so much like your classic Mao suit.
Additionally, the jacket was designed not by an old revolutionary but French designer Christophe Lemaire and his team in Paris. A Uniqlo representative told the South China Morning Post that any resemblance to the dress of Communist dictators brought up by net users is “purely coincidental,” adding “that was never in our minds when we designed the item.”
Once known as the “Sun Yat-sen suit” for the Chinese revolutionary father who first popularized it, the “Mao suit” became omnipresent in China for decades after the Communist Party took power. Nowadays, it’s really only worn by the diehards, but you can help bring that fashion back to the mainstream for a mere $63 plus tax.
