AHC: Keep capes as a common fashion garment for men

I like the look of capes and sometimes I'll drape my jacket over my shoulder and walk around with it like a cape.

However as a fashion item it has definitely fallen by the way-side, how could capes have continued as a popular fashion item for men?
 
Fewer automobiles and more walking.
It would also help if aircrew uniforms did not become so fashionable during the World Wars.
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
It would also help if aircrew uniforms did not become so fashionable during the World Wars.

Certainly less Grandmothers would have smoked themselves to death in that case.

My thoughts would be that opposed to Trenchcoats, British Soldiers (across all Ranks) adopt utilitarian versions of the Inverness Capes to cope with the rain of Northern France and Belgium. They're used in propaganda to show the 'stoic Tommy defending civilization against the barbaric hun' and you get Cape's to be the uniforms of heroes. Then some hundred years down the line we get questions over having Trench Coats be popular.
 
I like the look of capes and sometimes I'll drape my jacket over my shoulder and walk around with it like a cape.

When I wore my jacket like that in high school(mid 1980s Canada), my social studies teacher told me to "Wear that jacket like a man!", and pretty much made me put my arms through the sleeves.

So there's possibly an anti-homosexual bias in the contemporary aversion to capes. Plus, I think there's a bit of xenophobia in there as well: in popular representation, capes tend to be associated with vampires, who are usually portrayed as swarthy semi-orientals, along with other, vaguely foreign, bad guys. Even the typical persona of the caped and top-hatted magician has faintly exotic echoes.

And FDR wore a cape at Yalta, not his finest hour in the view of the kind of person who hates swishy men and scheming Eurasians.
 

Polemarchos

Banned
When I wore my jacket like that in high school(mid 1980s Canada), my social studies teacher told me to "Wear that jacket like a man!", and pretty much made me put my arms through the sleeves.

So there's possibly an anti-homosexual bias in the contemporary aversion to capes. Plus, I think there's a bit of xenophobia in there as well: in popular representation, capes tend to be associated with vampires, who are usually portrayed as swarthy semi-orientals, along with other, vaguely foreign, bad guys. Even the typical persona of the caped and top-hatted magician has faintly exotic echoes.

And FDR wore a cape at Yalta, not his finest hour in the view of the kind of person who hates swishy men and scheming Eurasians.

AustroHungarian empire doesn't fall, aristocracy remains a popular motif in the public zeitgeist.
 
When I wore my jacket like that in high school(mid 1980s Canada), my social studies teacher told me to "Wear that jacket like a man!", and pretty much made me put my arms through the sleeves.

So there's possibly an anti-homosexual bias in the contemporary aversion to capes. Plus, I think there's a bit of xenophobia in there as well: in popular representation, capes tend to be associated with vampires, who are usually portrayed as swarthy semi-orientals, along with other, vaguely foreign, bad guys. Even the typical persona of the caped and top-hatted magician has faintly exotic echoes.

And FDR wore a cape at Yalta, not his finest hour in the view of the kind of person who hates swishy men and scheming Eurasians.

I too have been subjected to negative comments when I've worn my jacket that way.

For some reason it does rub some people the wrong way perhaps for some of the reasons you've mentioned.
 
Check out the Pixar film "The Incredibles" to see why capes are a no-no in the era of machinery and rapid moving parts.:eek: IOW, think "La Machine!":eek:
 
How the Mighty have Fallen

Superman and Batman (among others) wouldn't be wearing capes to look different. (Trying to imagine the Batrenchcoat.)

As far as no capes because they are dangerous, that only applies if one is a Super (or Super wannabe.)

IIRC, in one of Hubbard's stories, Final Blackout(?), the hero wears a lead-lined cape to protect against radiation. (Which did poorly against bullets.)
 
Superman and Batman (among others) wouldn't be wearing capes to look different. (Trying to imagine the Batrenchcoat.) (1)

As far as no capes because they are dangerous, that only applies if one is a Super (or Super wannabe.) (2)

1) The Shadow I can see, so too Doctor Strange. One for mystical concealment in the darkness, the other as his Cloak of Levitation, so he can fly.

2) Do you know how loud the screaming will be from a factory floor foreman if he sees someone walking along an assembly line with free flowing clothing? Like a cape? Or what happens if you are wearing a cape on any (road, rail, water, air) conveyance when things turn to poo and you have to get out quickly? This wasn't an issue in the age of open horse-drawn carriages.
 
For capes in common (if official) use, look to Europe.

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Dracula becomes popular again instead of the current crop of insipid sparkly vampires with 8 pounds of hair gel :D

Seriously though, capes aren't very functional compared to coats in terms of keeping warm and are pretty much just vanity items. That in and of itself makes them a hard sell for men, aside from being used for Halloween costumes that is.
 
Perhaps have the cape as a 1970s fashion fad (perhaps popularised in the UK by Jon Pertwee's Doctor, and then have it spread).
 
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