Patches

I recently purchased a Harrrington jacket from the British clothing company Warrior Clothing, http://www.warriorclothing.org/uk/shop/ whom specialise in clothing “skinheads, punks, rockabillys and northern soul fans”. (So, that’s most of my musical tastes covered then). Overall, I'm really happy with the coat - it's really well cut and (even including postage from the UK) was fantastic value - but was keen to rather personalise the garment.

I had also done a trawl through the internet and bought a variety of Northern Soul patches and was intending to sew some of them onto the it, intending to achieve a sort of retro soulboy look.

I had a couple of slightly hesitant comments from my people regarding this prospect; “You’ll look like a geriatric Cub Scout” was one notable aside as well as a well-made point that many public spaces in New Zealand ban visible patches due to on-going social issues from New Zealand gangs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangs_in_New_Zealand).

As such, it only really takes one slightly over-zealous security guard to ruin a Saturday morning shopping outing. (Additionally, the potential for standing in the mall at Porirua some day talking to a toothless Mongrel Mob member about the relative merits of Okeh and Motown sides from the early sixties and the cultural impact of the Twisted Wheel in Manchester or Wigan Casino, similarly lacks appeal).

However, salvation for my (now useless) patches has been found in the form of one of my girlfriends regularly frequented design blogs. This showed someone whom had put a load of patches from American cities into a frame for decorative purposes.

As such, I think the attractive 'object d'art' that I've created and display here has turned out rather well and will shortly be going up on my music room wall: