Leather Jackets by a Ramone!

©Johnny Nunez
So you think the Ramone look is all about disheveled seventies, punk? Not so fast. Marky Ramone, who debuted a Rock Scene capsule collection with Tommy Hilfiger, is indeed fluent in chic. It turns out that Marky and Tommy go way back: “I’ve known Tommy since ’86,” Marky told Chic Report. “I played in a band with his brother, Andy, and Tommy would come to rehearsals. He was just starting out at the time, working out of the trunk of his car.”
As for the inspiration for the collection? “It’s just that era of tight jeans and t-shirts and leather jackets. People are bored of the baggy look because they’ve seen it done already. I see a lot of rock bands, girls and guys, wearing tighter fits–it’s come full circle. It’s time it was brought back.” The last living member of the Ramones has a classical definition of rock ‘n roll chic: “It started with guys like Marlon Brando, James Dean, Fonzie in Happy Days then you had the Ramones and the rest is history.”

So if slim jeans and a leather jacket are the staples of rock ‘n roll chic, what makes a perfect pair? “Today the jacket has to be a softer leather, so you don’t have to take 15, 20 years to break it in–with some tasteful studwork, nothing too overbearing.” Marky reminisced about the days of leather jackets that took years to break in, à la Marlon Brando’s in The Wild One. “I had the same one! It took years to wear them in, and that’s all that was around. So actually this coat that I designed is 32 years in the making.”
So why Tommy Hilfiger, besides the friendship connection? “Tommy always thinks of the normal buyer and concentrates on quality clothing that lasts. His price range is very fair and affordable, and that’s especially important in these times. To spend $2,000 to $3,000 on a leather jacket or $500 on a pair of jeans is ridiculous. I wanted to make sure that the prices of this line were affordable. Youth today have to pay college tuitions, they have to find jobs, and I want to make things affordable for them.”
But that doesn’t make Marky impartial to designer duds. “I like Versace. Those were the sort of things I wore, but now that I have my own line I’m gonna be wearing that!” Check out Rock Scene now at Hilfiger Denim on 500 Broadway in NYC and on Tommy.com in February.