In the category of outerwear there is no hotter trend at the moment than the bomber jacket. We know this not just by looking through our various social media timelines but also because the No. 1 searched for item on our site–with no close second–is the MA-1 bomber jacket.
A timeless classic, it already was bubbling on the burner quite nicely when Kanye West amped up interest during his 2013 Yeezus tour by including an Alpha Industries MA-1 jacket emblazoned with a Confederate flag as part of tour merchandise offerings. Ye had been spotted frequently wearing the iconic silhouette, but interest in the jacket blew through the roof fuel because of the controversy generated by the Confederate flag patch.
Alpha Industries: The Gold Standard
While lots of companies make an “MA-1” bomber, Alpha Industries is viewed as the original. First issued by the U.S. Airforce in the early ’50s, Alpha was awarded the government contract to make the jacket in 1963 and began producing the MA-1 as well as other military jackets for the civilian population in the ’70s and has continued to do so ever since. All last year, the brand’s jacket was pretty much sold out in women’s sizes (as well as men’s smaller sizes) and can still be hard to come by, but Amazon at the moment has just about every size available, and if it’s not there now, it’s restocks pretty regularly.
The Bombest Bombers
As hot as the bomber silhouette is at the monent, naturally a lot of brands are offering their version of it. We’ve gathered up what we consider to be the bombest bombers currently at retail. They come in a range of prices and a variety of cuts and colors (including Ashish’s booming glitter camo!), but the one theme that seemed to pop up over and over was an oversized fit, a look that marries the classic bomber with the relaxed boyfriend look, another (literally) big trend in 2015 that appears to have plenty of legs going forward.
In alphabetical order, here are our faves (click on images for shopping details):
