Groucho Marx once said, “I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.” Maybe he would have changed his mind if he could’ve been a part of the cool jacket club called ‘Members Only.’
Owning a Members Only jacket promised entrance into the exclusive clique that even Groucho would have clamored to be a part of. Ultra cool, the Members Only jacket was a collarless jacket with ribbed knit cuffs. They came in a selection of fashion colors—from teal blue to red—but black was generally considered the coolest.
These cotton, casual, windbreaker-style jackets were popularized when David Hasselhoff of Knight Rider sported his leather version, and Ricky Schroeder of Silver Spoons strutted around in his rainbow selection, a different color every day.
The cool thing about the collarless jacket was that the collar of your Izod polo didn’t have to compete when it was flipped up, and the ribbed cuffs guaranteed that your sleeves wouldn’t fall down after you pushed them up to the mid-forearm, which was essential if you wanted to fit in. Just having a Members Only wasn’t enough—you needed to know the cool way to wear it.
Members Only manufactured many different styles of jackets, from leather bomber jackets to ladies athletic jackets, but the colorful, cotton, collarless style will always be remembered as the quintessential Members Only style.
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