# What's with the memetic status associated with black/brown jackets and coats? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 19, 2017, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782 "2017-04-19T10:25:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dude\_robert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8e7dd6/32.png) [@dude\_robert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dude_robert)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/1 "2017-04-19T10:25:55Z")
So apparently there is some sort of “metalhead/gothic/emo” meme that happens when you wear a heavy jacket so you don’t freeze. I don’t understand this, why does wearing warm and protected clothes make you a stereotypical “vampire goth emo” type of person? Also, there seems to be a thing about hottopic. What’s wrong with shopping at hottopic? Is it just that they might sell expensive clothes and everyone else is jealous that they can’t afford them, so they all gang up together and create a negative meme about it? I mean, surely adults should not be insulting people on their clothes style or fashion, especially if they’re wearing their black jackets because it’s cold, like 99.99% of the population who wears thick jackets. Most people don’t go out and buy really expensive heavy jackets to be “edgy”, they buy them so that they’re warm. Who in their right mind would spend $300+ on a jacket just for 5 minutes of people making stereotypes about them? ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/2 "2017-04-19T11:32:58Z")
Are you sure that this exists outside of your imagination? ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/3 "2017-04-19T11:37:28Z")
> [@dude\_robert](#): > > So apparently there is some sort of “metalhead/gothic/emo” meme that happens when you wear a heavy jacket so you don’t freeze. What do you base this conclusion on? And what new usage of “meme” are you employing here? ---
**Author:** ![dude\_robert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8e7dd6/32.png) [@dude\_robert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dude_robert)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/4 "2017-04-19T12:09:14Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Are you sure that this exists outside of your imagination? I have seen it said and referenced multiple times, and I will you both of you the most recent times it has been said. I think this meme also applies to leather jackets as well. > [@naita](#): > > What do you base this conclusion on? And what new usage of “meme” are you employing here? Well, I took a screenshot of the reddit comments that I was posting this based off. Here they are. (NSFW so non-auto-parsected link) [[Album] ![](https:?fb) ](https://imgur.com/a/UyxGz) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/5 "2017-04-19T12:18:42Z")
> [@dude\_robert](#): > > Also, there seems to be a thing about hottopic. What’s wrong with shopping at hottopic? As far as I can recall, the one and only time I’ve ever heard of hottopic was the South Park episode where Butters thought that he was a vampire. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/6 "2017-04-19T12:30:19Z")
> [@dude\_robert](#): > > Well, I took a screenshot of the reddit comments that I was posting this based off. Here they are. (NSFW so non-auto-parsected link) > > [http://imgur.com/a/UyxGz](http://imgur.com/a/UyxGz) None of those are about wearing “a heavy jacket so you don’t freeze”. They’re about wearing clothing you think is cool when barely anyone else thinks so. If you want to stay warm and you worry about what other people think, you pick a style that doesn’t stand out as much. If you want to wear a heavy jacket and you just really, really love dark colours you just have to live with the fact that dark, heavy jackets also happens to be what metalheads, goths, emos and school shooters wear and that stereotyping and prejudice is human nature. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/7 "2017-04-19T12:31:45Z")
Go to REI and buy a nice warm jacket that doesn’t make you look like a school shooter, you probably won’t even spend $300. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/8 "2017-04-19T12:35:27Z")
My winter coat is dark gray, with light gray accents. Before that one, my previous winter coat was red and dark blue. Both were plenty effective at keeping me from freezing to death, and neither one made me look goth, because they weren’t in a goth style. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/9 "2017-04-19T12:37:25Z")
Non-goths who want to keep warm in cold weather wear parkas (anoraks). ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/10 "2017-04-19T12:39:51Z")
> [@dude\_robert](#): > > I have seen it said and referenced multiple times, and I will you both of you the most recent times it has been said. I think this meme also applies to leather jackets as well. > > Well, I took a screenshot of the reddit comments that I was posting this based off. Here they are. (NSFW so non-auto-parsected link) > > [http://imgur.com/a/UyxGz](http://imgur.com/a/UyxGz) Too damn small to read. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/11 "2017-04-19T12:48:59Z")
The black trench coat / duster thing started as counter-culture fashion in the 80s and has remained popular in goth culture ever since. The look was popularized by a lot of punk and new wave musical artists in the early 80s. In the mid 1990s, some students in Columbine High School in Colorado started wearing black trench coats to school partly because they thought it looked cool, and partly as a way to stand up to bullying (they were unpopular computer nerds, basically). They started calling themselves the Trench Coat Mafia. Two kids at Columbine came into the school wearing trench coats and went on a shooting spree. Initially it was thought that they were members of the so-called Trench Coat Mafia but while they had worn trench coats, they weren’t really a part of that social group. Trench coats and dusters today still have that goth vibe going and are also sometimes still associated with the Columbine massacre. It’s a fashion look, and has nothing to do with wearing a heavy coat so you don’t freeze. Folks who wear these types of coats for that goth/emo fashion look often wear them even when the weather is far too warm to need them. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/12 "2017-04-19T12:50:46Z")
ETA: Part ninja’d by **e\_c\_g** ISTM / IME most of the “goths” are wearing non-mainstream trenchcoats in the summer. The OP probably needs to be told that the demographic here skews old. Very few of us are under 30, and not too many are under 40. So asking us about fashion applicable to teens and young twenty’s will get us talking about our kids, not ourselves. Or reminiscing about the Goode Olde Dayes when we were young. The chain of mall stores is called “Hot Topic”. Two words. They’ve been trying to be “edgy” and set teen styles now for (no exaggeration) 30 years. Tweens keep growing into HT’s demographic clueless of what came before. And rebelling by buying whatever HT and bovine peer pressure tell them all to buy this year. I’m not acting superior here; I was subject to the same silliness when I was 10, 14, 18, etc. As were many of my classmates. Now, at the advanced age of nearly 60 I don’t place much stock in the OP’s wailing about other kids’ monolithic and irrational attitudes. IOW, the OP may be right that it feels that way to him. But he’s wrong to ascribe much significance to that feeling. He’s also lucky he’s not growing up in the era I did where the height of teen fashion was to go out in winter in shorts and a T-shirt. Or maybe Levis and a T-shirt if it was well below freezing. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/13 "2017-04-19T12:51:57Z")
`mnemonic`? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/14 "2017-04-19T12:56:30Z")
Reported for forum change. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/15 "2017-04-19T13:35:37Z")
Don’t shop at Hot Topic and people won’t think you’re a goth/emo/whatever. Seriously, it’s overpriced kid’s stuff. And it is _designed_ to look goth/emo/whatever. That’s the _whole point_ of Hot Topic. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/16 "2017-04-19T14:04:50Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > He’s also lucky he’s not growing up in the era I did where the height of teen fashion was to go out in winter in shorts and a T-shirt. I’ll see that and raise my parachute pants, red jackets covered with nonfunctional zippers, and various things covered with spikes. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/17 "2017-04-19T14:16:30Z")
I’ll see your things covered in spikes and raise you a Don Johnson white cotton suit. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/18 "2017-04-19T14:25:18Z")
Any of you young’ns wanna see my disco outfit from college? With Travolta hair to go along? Damn kids. Mutter, mutter, mutter. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/19 "2017-04-19T14:25:47Z")
Hot Topic doesn’t produce jackets for utility. They are a fashion brand, and they cater specifically to the sort of crowd you mention. While anyone is free to buy whatever clothes they like, from any retail outlet, if they’re spending their money at a boutique, they shouldn’t presume that their choice of garment is going to be viewed as a utilitarian one. Why spend $300 for a jacket from Hot Topic, if Burlington Coat Factory will sell you one that’s just as warm for half the price, unless you’re paying for that Hot Topic look? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782/20 "2017-04-19T14:47:16Z")
Rewording the OP: “Please tell me I’m not a victim of peer pressure and marketing. Please validate my poor fashion sense. I’m a person, not a data point!” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-memetic-status-associated-with-black-brown-jackets-and-coats/784782.md?page=2)