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Tiger Stripes


Andrei
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Man, Andrei, a bit dating yourself?

You also have to remember Ian & Billy from the Cult wearing tiger stripes and Vietnam tour jackets. In fact, that was how I met Ian at the Isllington show in London on Saturday mornings. I would fly to London to do that show and whatever else I could, in the mid-80's, about every other month. He would always be there to see what stripe I brought over. That was also when I would take over as many A-2's as I could to sell to Dave H., the manager of the Pretenders. I think if you can get Spkie to tell stories, when he was working in a vintage clothes store Joe Strummer would come in, and if he wasn't wearing tiger stripes, his girlfriend at the time was.

Also, about that time, I think it was in the Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Welcome To The Pleasure Dome. The lead singer is wearing a tiger stripe flight suit throughout the video.

Ah... the good ol'80s !

With the Punk Rock explosion, you could see many camos out in the streets and at gigs, French, US, sometimes Wh or SS.

One day, I was with my mate Eric who was a punk and he spotted accross the avenue another punk wearing a TAP52 smock, brand new. Eric knew the stuff because his father was Commando de l'Air in Algeria. We shouted at the guy to wait one but once he saw us he ran away like hell. We started chasing him in the park but he was faster than us. :D

Cant remember if I already post this story. Domino had a girl-friend whose father was SF officer in VN. He brought back the uniform (I think it was a tiger set) he wore when he was wounded. His daughter wore it with pride when she was a punk rocker telling everybody, this is the blood of my father in VN.

I asked Domino to call her back and ask for her father's stuff. She answered that they dumped everything last time they moved.

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Hi Guys

Well well well , this thread went all punk on us !!!!!

I also seen the Clash on the tigerstripe tour.

Was it combat rock??

The bass player was wearing the washed out golds that night.

I was wearing my lightweights and felt very punkrock.

Hair dyed purple ,girlfriend using a tea kettle as a handbag!!!

Westwood destroy t shirt .

Those were the days .

I think I had just seen the deer hunter and I was all tiger on the nut .

 

Lets post some more sets to beef up this tiger thread as a one stop reference spot for everyone out there.

 

I am looking for my punk pix now so this might get real fun or real silly or just both .

 

Anyone got any more weird tigerbags?

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vintageproductions

while Owen, tries to figure out his photos, here are some grament bags we have right now.

 

bags.JPG

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And this one of Paul with a beret flashed for the 5th Gp. The color looks odd but it could be the picture.

 

post-467-1217841515.jpg

 

I think it could be the same red beret that he wears for the 'Rock the Casbah' music clip - that one also sports a 5th SFG beret flash.

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A

Here you go my old chap .

1 19 year old in tigerstripe camouflage shirt .

1 cho cho train .

1 can harp .

1 big happy grin .

22 years ago !!!!!

all the best

o

post-2009-1218063517.jpg

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Hi all

So I got me Clash book out and here is The Clash playing on Hollywood Blvd with APOC now playing next door .Punk and Tigerstripe go real well together .

Like 2 peas in a pod !!!!

That is as cool as it gets boys .

Kammo man

post-2009-1218073133.jpg

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Hi All,

 

After all those discussions about how Tige Stripe suited Punk style (that doesn't really concern me since I'm too young in those years), come back to main focus of this topic.

 

Here a Gold pattern jacket I just bought (for few bucks), the jacket was retailored to be more fit and short and the pen pocket was added. The thing that looks weird for me is that I can not find any stamp siez even the jacket looks near mint condition.

post-1523-1218130227.jpg

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Close up, I get this shirt along with a CISO pyjama and VC flags from the Go Cong area (in the Delta Mekong), don't know whether there was a SF camp here or any Seal or Riverine there

post-1523-1218130347.jpg

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hochiminhtrail

long time i havent participated so i will post my 2 sets of TS,

 

both are named to the same guy, the first one i m showing is in MINT condition, it has never been worn, paper tag is still present, and some threads are still visible on the sleeves he never bothered to cut them of, it looks unworn. The Japanese tag showned is at the bottom of the shirt, the US size tag that you see on the neck is M

 

the second set is to the same guy, i also have is OG 107, but that s another story. Sorry the pictures arent so good.

post-1849-1218137849.jpg

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vintageproductions

Nice sets. These are the ones that came out of Manion's awhile back. One of the Manion's employees went into a thrift shop in Kansas City and found three sets. The last set was just listed a couple of days ago on their auction..

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Hello,

 

Was this guy from the SF or other branch of the army, I remember there was a set in Beo Gam sold few years ago belonging to a Captain or Major Moore too.

 

 

 

second set, this one is slightly worn condition with pants, name is also on the neck.
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Hi Guys

Nice to see the manions tiger sets comming in the pages , I was wondering who got them .

It just goes to show there is always stuff out there that nobody has seen before .

 

Its good to also learn that some of the old hands have been wearing tigers for years and learning from looking at other punkrockers camouflage collections,

 

Tigerstripe must be the original punk camouflage and just like the old punk saying "punks not dead'

we can now say

"tigers not dead"

 

Long live Tigerstripe !!!!

 

This has become a great thread thanks to all who have made it possible so far....

 

All the best

owen .

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vintageproductions

Hi All,

 

After all those discussions about how Tige Stripe suited Punk style (that doesn't really concern me since I'm too young in those years), come back to main focus of this topic.

 

 

While you may not think that the punk rock fashion has anything to do with Tiger Stripe collecting, I would dis-agree. In the late 1970's-early 1980's most of us that started collecting Vietnam items, esp. tiger stripes, only got to see these items being worn on stage or in used clothing stores. When you would see these guys on stage wearing them you were instantly thinking " Man, I want a pair of those". Then you would hunt like crazy to find some to wear. It wasn't at this time where tigers were even considered collectible. If you could have found a first pattern VNMC, you wouldn't have handled them with white gloves, heck, you would have put them on and spilled beer and your lunch on them and wore them until they shredded.

At most military shows no one really cared about these rare pieces of camo, and didn't even put them out for sale. I can remember going in to rag mills, and going through bales of tiger stripes. If they had a tear in them, we passed on them, if patches were missing we passed on them. If they were smaller then a US medium, we passed on them. At this time you would have to pay $20.00 each, and we were only paying that if they were big or perfect condition. You all don't want to know how many pieces of ERDL was left, becuase we didn't care about them. It wasn't until the late 1980's that these started bringing good money. Even then, a large size gold pattern shirt was maybe $50.00. I had to go check some of my first sales catalogs, I used to send out, to re-check that price.

During this time period the Vietnam collectors were almost considered the out cast of militaria collecting. If you were at a show and said you were looking for Vietnam items, most people just looked down their noses at you. For the most part the guys who were buying the camo, were kind of the fringe element of the collecting society. Whether they were Punks, Mods, Heavy Metaler's, whatever, you could always spot the Vietnam camo collectors during this time, as they always stood out in a crowd.

So, Like I stated earlier, I really do believe that relating the early punk scene with tiger stripe collecting, go hand in hand, not just a bunch of us old cranky collectors "remembering the good times". If you were too young to be involved in that scene, it is a shame, as it was a lot of fun.

Bob

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Bob, you are absolutely right... I really miss those days. I made 44 a couple of weeks ago... and I wonder where all did the time go.

TS were not that popular in France because they were a rare sight. Camos were mostly french of course and US, German and Austrian. Never like the french camo, you looked like a hunter with those TAP pants on you.

My all time fave is the British DPM. Camo trousers, tailored to fit tight on your calves with 14 tops black commando boots with red laces or with cherry red DMs.

I guess thats it for nostalgia...

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