Matchless Notting Hill jacket

9th April 2016

Rebel | Waxed cotton | Parka | Flying M

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It is possible to try too hard. Everyone knows that—except perhaps Matchless which has sent us details of its new Notting Hill waxed cotton jacket. Actually, a Notting Hill Rebel waxed cotton jacket.

You'll recall, no doubt, that the Matchless brand is currently owned by the Italian Malenotti family headed by Franco Malenotti. The family bought it in 2012 from a Greek consortium which, in 2006, paid £45,000 for the famous "Flying M" device and rights (see Sump July 2015).

Since then, the company has positioned itself alongside the likes of Belstaff and has created numerous up-market fashion products ranging from sunglasses to jackets to blouses to whatever floats the boats of contemporary urban fashionistas.

Well this Notting Hill Rebel waxed cotton jacket is the latest from Matchless. On the one hand, it's hard to imagine who might actually buy this product. But if you've already got a Onesie romper/jump suit and a pair of Mickey Mouse ears, we suppose you might also find a place for this jacket in your wardrobe. It's clothing like this, some might say, that puts the itch in kitch, and we certainly don't see a long queue of Matchless riders waiting to get themselves inside of one.

But that totally misses the point because this jacket isn't aimed at bikers. At least, not the kind of everyday/traditional bugs-in-the-teeth bikers you're probably more familiar with. It's aimed at a different set with different aspirations and pretensions. But as with everything in life, there is some crossover, and this garment crosses over to the pseudo-hippy market too, and maybe also the wealthy student clique.

Then again, if you don't take life too seriously and don't give a Flying M about what the other guy thinks (which is arguably a pretty good philosophy), this jacket might suit you well.

Matchless, in fact, calls it a "parka". But it doesn't look like any parka we've ever seen. But we're no experts. Regardless, it's part of the firm's Spring/Summer Collection 2016. Features include a quick-release neck strap, underarm aerators (do fashionistas actually sweat?), a "traditional" check lining, a waist drawstring, button fastening on the wrists, and enough sewn-on patches to light the fuse for the revolution.

It's made in Italy, incidentally, so we figure the manufacturing quality is likely to be high. And as you'd expect from the Italians, it's cut nicely too. We figure that if Matchless hadn't laid it on so thick with the Notting Hill Rebel stuff, it might have drawn a more generous response from us. Meanwhile, we're wondering what they call this jacket in other markets. The Haight-Ashbury? The Tiananmen? The Hungarian Uprising?

Lastly, we don't see a Ban-the-Bomb patch or anything resembling a marijuana leaf, but that can easily be remedied. The price is £399.

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