One of the pictures American photographer Fred J. Maroon took for his 1968 fashion photoshoot in Afghanistan (that we analysed in yesterday's post) showed a model wearing a pustakis, or embroidered sheepskin jacket, hat and boots with the hills north of Kunduz in the background. According to the late photographer's notes, the jacket was about $27 at the market in Kabul.
Yet, if sold in London or New York, the jacket would have been far more expensive. Sheepskin or goatskin jackets - also known as Afghan jackets - were indeed considered a cult item between the late '60s and the '70s.
Made with the fleece on the inside and the cured and tanned leather on the outside, hip-length sleeveless or short-sleeved (pustinchas) jackets, knee-length, long-sleeved (pustakis) or ankle-length coats (pustins), originated from the Ghazni province, between Kabul and Kandahar. Men would cure the skin, tan the leather and make the jackets, while women and girls embroidered them with intricate geometric and floral designs.
Western travelers started buying them in the '50s, but they became more popular in the '60s when hippies travelling to exotic locations started visiting Afghanistan and spotted them, turning the garment into a staple of their wardrobes.
In the mid-'60s Craig Sams, a young American, travelled to Kabul and started importing Afghan coats to the UK, selling them in hippie boutiques such as Granny Takes a Trip on London's King's Road. Pustinchas became popular with both men and women and The Beatles made the jackets more popular in 1967.
"Everybody wanted one of my Afghan coats when The Beatles walked out of Granny Takes a Trip boutique on Kings Road wearing them," Sams remembers on his website.
Lennon sported a tanned yellow Afghan coat embroidered with red flowers at The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album launch party, held at Brian Epstein’s house in May 1967; Ringo Starr was also portrayed in an Afghan jacket in June 1967. Besides, all four Beatles wore pustinchas inside-out in their film of the Magical Mystery Tour and on the album's cover (View this photo) and they also sold the jackets at the Apple Boutique, their retail store.
Life magazine dedicated to the trend a feature published on its 26th July 1968 issue entitled "A Shaggy Coat Story from Afghanistan". The feature recounted how a New York-based company, Mallory, had started importing goatskin jackets straight from Afghanistan (the jackets were sold at $75), while another company, Knobkerry imported jewelry. Life dedicated three pages to the Afghan jackets, prominently featuring Mallory's embroidered and braided vests.
The magazine highlighted that the jackets were launched by The Beatles in England and eventually became fashionable also in the States. "Worn over bright silk jump suits and slung about with yards of Mideast jewelry, they make an exotic evening outfit, especially when the nights turn cold," the feature on Life magazine stated.
By 1968 Afghan coats were everywhere, from the cover of Harper's Bazaar to the pages of Italian erotic magazine Playmen, modelled in this case by actor Tomas Milian (the shop Edward's in Via Borgognona, Rome, sold the jackets).
Demand rose and the production moved to Kabul where more artisans and embroiderers were employed to make the coats, among them many women from the provinces where there were many skilled needleworkers. Imitations were also made in Iran and Turkey: the original jackets from Ghazni featured elaborate hand-embroideries, but less elaborate ones became popular as the demand rose.
The coats had their advantages and disadvantages: they were hand-made and therefore unique and they were relatively affordable, even when artisans made them pay more; on the other side, due to a skin curing process they had an unpleasant smell especially in the rain (Life magazine highlighted in its feature that Mallory's jackets were deodorised upon their arrival in the States).
The sheepskin smell didn't stop the trend for Afghan coats, though: sold at Bloomingdale's and Macy's, the jackets became a hit with ordinary people and with celebrities as well. The musicians who opted for the trend included, for example, David Bowie, who donned a pustakis when he got married to Angela Barnett in March 1970; before him, The Animals' Eric Burdon had already chosen an Afghan coat for his wedding to Angie King at Caxton Hall, London, in 1967.
But the list of musicians who went for this style also features Jimi Hendrix, Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd, Pete Townshend of The Who and The Kinks.
Quite often costume designers have turned to this iconic wardrobe staple to recreate a mood in films set in the '70s: the character of Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous" (2000), sports indeed an Afghan coat.
It is not so rare to stumble upon a sheepskin coat in contemporary collections such as Hedi Slimane's S/S 20 Celine collection, while for some fashion brands such as Etro or Coach the sheepskin coat has become a signature piece. Etro featured for example in its A/W 21 collection a few densely embroidered sheepskin jackets that seem to recreate the original styles from the '70s.
It is difficult to reconcile this trend that helped spreading the fame of the country in the '60s to the Afghanistan of these past few weeks, with the Taliban regaining power, people being evacuated and warnings about terror attacks in Kabul. As thousands of refugees fled from Afghanistan and safely landed in emergency centres set up in different countries in the last few days, you realise that the story of this traditional hand-made item gradually changed when it became a hippie trend and a fashion must, turning in more recent years into a case of cultural appropriation.
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