Dress for Success
With apologies to John T. Malloy, I don’t think this is what he had in mind
A chain belt, about 1973
Recently I’ve had readers asking for more details about the clothes we wore in the sixties and seventies. So, I posted the above photo on Facebook to show the chain belts we used to wear. They were made from sections of chrome Harley primary chain laced onto a leather belt.
Some were made from just the chain itself with a buckle on the end. But those were hard on your pants in a pretty short time.
If you were trying to be nice, they could be used during small disagreements in a bar or parking lot, since they were less lethal than a knife or a gun.
What other kinds of clothes did we wear? Well, not your typical jeans and leather jacket. We didn’t want to look like Marlon Brando in The Wild One. Besides, leather jackets were expensive. What little money most of us had went into our motorcycles. We could buy Navy foul weather, or Army field jackets for a few bucks at the G.I. surplus store. Back then the Army jackets were just olive drab green instead of camo like today.
Though I never bought one, I did own a couple of leather jackets. They were both lightweight, not your typical motorcycle jacket with zippers running in all directions. One was given to me, the other I traded for. I wore them under heavier gear, like my black trench coat.
Trench coat, with Kasey in Prosser, Washington, 1970
The other was kind of leather shirt. It was a pullover with zippers down the sides. It was a good wind breaker when worn under heavier coats. I still have it, along with my Navy foul-weather jacket.
1975, The leather shirt. With Laurel, from the story named A Memorable Ride, chapter 41 in Hangmen
Leather pants were rare, and cost more than most bail bonds.
Most of us wore jeans, but we had a special kind, they were called ‘slicks,’ or I’ve heard the term ‘originals.’
They were usually Levis. It took years to develop a proper pair. They were embedded with motor oil and dirt, beer and… well, I’ll leave it at that. Washing them would have been sacrilegious. Dirty was definitely the style, and some guys competed to be the Grubbiest. One brother went for a year without taking a bath or washing his long hair.
In the summer you might wear just the slicks, while in the colder months you could have a clean pair of jeans underneath for extra warmth. Back then nobody wore chaps.
Part of our theory was that they were a kind of imitation leather and would help if you found yourself sliding across the pavement. In reality, they would not last long. We joked that they would stand up in a corner by themselves.
A rather blurry example of a Navy foul-weather jacket and a pair of slicks from 1972
Engineer boots were the footwear of choice. They protected your feet in case of an accident. Some had steel toes, so you didn’t break any bones in your foot if you happened to kick someone in the head. Nobody worried about the person’s head. If he was getting kicked, he probably deserved it.
Just like nobody rode baggers, nobody wore tennis shoes like they do today. Although there is an old picture from 1970 of Hipster wearing sneakers on his Knucklehead. I blame him for probably starting the modern trend.
And nobody wore short pants! How are you supposed to look like a man in tennis shoes and short pants?
Can you imagine a Clint Eastwood western, where the camera pans down from the face of the steely eyed gunfighter, cigar in mouth, cowboy hat, ragged serape, his holstered colt… and short pants and tennis shoes?
That image just doesn’t work. And it doesn’t work for bikers. Or maybe that’s just me.