Let's continue the unlikely fashion inspirations series that started on Tuesday to look at a detail from a vintage cycling jersey for the Molteni team.
This Italian professional road bicycle racing team was started around 1958 by Pietro Molteni and had Renato Molteni as team manager. It was among the most famous teams between the '60s and the '70s. The team, sponsored by the eponymous salami manufacturer, won 663 races, many of them earned by its most famous rider, Eddy Merckx, though the list of other popular riders for this team also includes Gianni Motta and Marino Basso.
Its riders donned a distinctive chamois-black top, but the one in the pictures featured in this post is particularly interesting: dating from 1960 it had its pockets in the front of the jersey, right in the middle of the chest.
In later decades the pockets on cycling jerseys were applied in the lower back part of the shirts to guarantee more dynamism (in some cases in more modern jerseys pockets were removed to eliminate resistance). Though it would be unthinkable to start producing once again cycling jerseys with this construction, this feature (two large pockets one next to the other secured by plain buttons) could be maybe reinvented and rediscovered in a more modern key in a menswear collection.
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