Ray your jacket reminded me of my classmate at Purdue, John Thompson. Our Junior year design final projects were to be presented in the auditorium of Coulter Hall at Purdue. For weeks everyone was working in the design lab on their projects at a furious rate, except John. He didn’t seem to care one way or the other.
The day of the presentation John drew “last” as his position to make his presentation. The thing was, he didn’t have an “industrial design” project to present; no chair, no consumer product, no vehicle concept, nuthin’. What he did present, in true run way style, was a beautiful three-piece wool suit and car coat, immaculately tailored, and sewn, by himself. He accompanied his presentation with concept and detail sketches, sample boards and descriptions of the materials, why he selected them, the types of stitches in the various places in the garment, why they were used, etc.
A total blow away moment for me. I later learned that he had worked in the garment district in Chicago from the age of sixteen.