Bulletproof jacket is High Fashion in Mexico
Bulletproof jacket is High Fashion in Mexico
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Shopping for designer clothes in Mexico City isn’t the same as it is in other world capitals.
In the tiny Miguel Caballero boutique on a leafy side street in the Polanco district, the jackets and shirts are not stacked according to size; they are stacked according to how well they will stop a bullet from piercing your chest.
“Low” means it can protect you against a .38 Special; “medium” will allow you to survive an assault from a sub-machinegun; and “high” will give you the chance to brag about the time someone tried to take you out at point-blank range with a .44 Magnum.
Welcome to the world of high-security fashion — a lucrative market in a country where there have been almost 3,000 murders this year, along with two or three kidnappings every day.
Miguel Caballero — named after the company’s Colombian founder — sells everything from trenchcoats to dress shirts (to be worn under your dinner jacket) and leather motorcycle jackets. Customers include President Chávez of Venezuela.
The most expensive line, labelled Black, features removable bulletproof panels that are so light and flexible that you can screw them up in your hand like paper. They are also thermo-regulating, meaning that they keep your body temperature between 13C (55F) and 17C. The only downside is the expense: $7,000 (£4,000) for a single jacket with the highest level of protection.
I need to get a few of these custom made. Things are getting dicey in this Down Economy.
Just to think, I have been cruising around Tijuana swooping girls in $7,000 non-bullet proof suits…
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The Rest is Up To You…
Michael Porfirio Mason
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24/09/2008 at 3:25 am Permalink
They wouldn’t be in business if there wasn’t a demand for their product. That said, I wonder how long it will be before someone develops a consumer-grade Iron Man suit?
05/10/2008 at 5:02 pm Permalink
The New York Times picked up on this trend on their front page:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/world/americas/06mexico.html?
This would sell VERY well in Brazil, Sao Paolo, particularly. The moneyed elite in this city their share the same space with everyone else living in the favelas, struggling to make ends meet. When wealth and poverty are in close proximity, crime is inevitable.
I’m traveling to a few hostile regions of the world in a month (Africa). I’ll see what the market is like there and maybe make some loose change brokering some of these sales on the side.