{"product_id":"ringleader-merivale-hommes-1980s-90s-black-satin-lapel-swallowtail-jacket","title":"Ringleader · Merivale Hemmes 1980s Black Satin-Lapel Swallowtail Jacket","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eBlack cotton twill with satin lapel facing · double-breasted swallowtail cut · six covered buttons · Merivale Hemmes, Australia · 1980s · 56cm front length, 52cm back · tagged a vintage 10\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe lapel does something the rest of her does not: it catches light. Satin laid flat against matte black cotton twill, peaked high near the shoulder, so the eye goes there first before it finds the row of covered buttons marching down to where the front splits into two long points.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhoever cut this jacket built her the way a proper tailcoat gets built: princess seams to shape the waist without a dart in sight, a back that splits into its own pair of points below the closure, sleeves set high enough into the shoulder that the whole thing holds its posture without help from the body inside it. The label reads Merivale Hemmes, carrying the family name straight through: John and Merivale Hemmes opened the House of Merivale in Sydney in the 1960s and dressed a generation before the family name moved on to restaurants and hotels. This one was made sometime in the 1980s, in the label's later years, when a woman in a swallowtail dinner jacket was making exactly the kind of statement a jacket like this was built for.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSix black covered buttons close double-breasted across the front, though she is clearly built to be worn open as much as closed, the deep 35cm drop at the collar leaving plenty of room for that choice. The back falls into two pointed tails below the waist, tailcoat construction rather than a decorative hem, and the sleeves finish with a single covered button at the cuff. She is unlined, which keeps her light for a piece with this much structure, with a dry clean only tag the one instruction stitched inside.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44179892174982,"sku":null,"price":185.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3808.jpg?v=1784775910","url":"https:\/\/checkout.caitiedid.shop\/products\/ringleader-merivale-hommes-1980s-90s-black-satin-lapel-swallowtail-jacket","provider":"caitiedid","version":"1.0","type":"link"}