Safari Jacket

One of all my all time favorite and must have pieces of outerwear has been for years the classical Safari jacket. An item that appeared in the 19th century with the African Safari hunters and visitors and that was later revisited in the late 60s and early 70s by the legendary YSL (whose style during this period I'll later on discuss in my blog). Afterall YSL was very proud of his African heritage and this was evidenced throughout several of his collections.

Below we can see him at the 1969 opening of his Rive Gauche boutique in London wearing a Safari jacket with matching trousers that create a suit. It's worth noticing that the belt is made up of braided leather.

YSL is credited for designing a Safari jacket for women too, like this one modelled by Verushka in 1968 as part of his Rive Gauche collection. This same model was available for his mens collection that year. It is an updated version of a classic item.

Throughout the 70s many designed and sold Safari jackets, whether it was in linen, cotton, or even fur (I own this vintage one). In recent years I've spotted in several stores, the most notable one being Zara, Safari jackets. Just several days ago I came across this Liz Claiborne cotton Safari jacket and purchased it. What I liked of it is that it can be worn on very cold or slighlty chilly days and it's design & price ;)

To end this post I'd like to say that a Safari jacket is definetly a must have wardrobe item due to its classical elegance and retro vibe.

Photos: Hellomagazine.com, Flickr, & LizClaiborne.com