Mall Rats, Rejoice!
Members Only jackets are back, and looking might boss.
Dana Thomas
March 06, 2008
Back in the early 1980s, when mullets were considered cool, Madonna was a fledgling pop singer, and everyone under 30 stopped what they were doing at 3 p.m. to catch the latest adventures of Luke and Laura on “G.H.”—or “General Hospital,” as it was officially known—a very unassuming bomber jacket in ice cream colors and with a discreet label on the upper pocket that read “Members Only” suddenly and inexplicably became the rage. The deal was sealed when Anthony Geary, “Luke,” with his gangly body and receding blonde ’fro, not only started wearing Members Only jackets but starred in a commercial hawking them.
“Hi!” he says, with a “Frampton Comes Alive!” lighting that gave his ’do an eerie angelic glow. “Never thought I’d want to do a commercial but here I am for Members Only jackets. Why? Because when I put one on, something happens.”
Something’s happened all right. In the last few years, Members Only bomber jackets have experienced a vintage resurgence: on eBay, in movies (Will Smith wears one in The Pursuit of Happyness), even on the final episode of “The Sopranos.” Remember that sinister fellow sitting at the diner bar? He had one on. Was it a clue?
Maybe for Arnold Simon, a Seventh Avenue veteran: He took control of the brand and hired long-time celebrity and fashion editor Kelli Delaney to relaunch it with a sexy women’s collection this spring that includes trenches, knit dresses, and a girl’s version of the classic bomber in gold- or silver-metallic leather, retailing for about $950 at trendoid fashion temples like Henri Bendel, Fred Segal, and Kitson. In the fall, Delaney will re-introduce the menswear line with what she calls a “completely revamped” version of the Geary jacket. “It’s very swank.”
At 38, Delaney is from the young end of the original Members Only generation. She never got set up with a guy who wore a Pepto-Bismol-hued Members Only jacket and cranked the Hooters as he drove you to some dive on Kamikaze night (four for a dollar). “Benny White wore one to the prom,” she does recall. “It was gray and had a matching gray cummerbund, and I thought, You don’t look like anyone else here!” She was being kind.
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