Men don’t wear capes anymore

[Guest]

If you forget about super heroes now, with Batman and Superman, Bionic Bronco, Captain Afghanistan, or whatever, and forget magicians, nor am I talking about evil cardinals of the 17th century Vatican.

I mean like in the olden days and almost ordinary folk, like the musketeers, or how men were dressed as they wandered about a Robin Hood day market place, or simply some rough bunch pillaging offside villages in the country side, the leader would always wear a cape, wouldn’t he?

What happened? When did the cape have this falling out with man and his wardrobe?
It’s pretty convenient, a cape, isn’t it? You’re wearing your sleeping bag as you wander the fields, stroll down muddy court yards behind castle walls, or out picking poisonous mushrooms for a cocktail tio be served to the neighbor who shagged your wife.

I’d like someone to explain what exactly it is that makes women go all ooh-aah eyed over a man in a cape? Why do women find this piece of evidently girly item of clothing, so sexy and such a turn-on, when they see a man wear it, and it’s not in fashion anymore? It doesn’t make sense.

I’m thinking about calling Levi’s and present this idea of re-introducing the cape in men’s fashion. I tried once with the poncho, but it died on the drawing board. I believe in the cape. Year 2010 is the year of the cape, and my wallet will be fat with the riches this idea will bring.

I can imagine EIM sporting this without looking the fool.

[ad hoc]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

I know someone who occasionally wears a cape. And he looks like a dick when he does. I reckon the idea is a non-starter.

[ad hoc]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

It's all a bit beardhammer:

[beak]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

beardhammer, or worse:

[Guest]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

No, no, no.
You're pointing at the wrong caped ones.

[Nishlord]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

My mate at college used to wear a cape - a nurses one that he nicked on his part-time job at the local hospital - and would regularly come in with it on and nip over to the nearby graveyard on his dinner hour to do Hamlet soliloquies.

I fell out with him and our other mate over a particularly nasty practical joke they played on me, so I ceremoniously burned it and the other mate's Glass Spider Tour T-shirt and posted the ashes back to them.

[Guest]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

Nishlord wrote:

My mate at college used to wear a cape - a nurses one that he nicked on his part-time job at the local hospital - and would regularly come in with it on and nip over to the nearby graveyard on his dinner hour to do Hamlet soliloquies.

I fell out with him and our other mate over a particularly nasty practical joke they played on me, so I ceremoniously burned it and the other mate's Glass Spider Tour T-shirt and posted the ashes back to them.

Ha! Another classic to become!

[Bored Of Education]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

I am not sure about capes but I agree with you about ponchos. How did that become associated with women when Clint Eastwood was the last man to wear one?

I am thinking of buying a Tallit actually, they look fairly useful as well

[Stumpy Pepys]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

What's the point of a cape though? It's just a draughty overcoat with nothing for your arms.

Is its attraction that it allows a surreptitious bit of pocket billiards?

[Hofzinser]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

I fell out with him and our other mate over a particularly nasty practical joke they played on me

We need details.

[Tactical Genius]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

Ad Hoc, your mate looks like a flasher.

Ganja, the cape was known as a mantle in the olden days hence the word mantlepiece, the bit over the fireplace where you could hang your soggy cape.
No doubt someone wiser than me will come on tell me i am wrong.

[Nishlord]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

Hofzinser wrote:

I fell out with him and our other mate over a particularly nasty practical joke they played on me

We need details.

Faked letter from a theatre in London offering to put on a play I sent to them when I was 17. They've apologised many times over. I'm scheduled to forgive them completely in 2031.

[ad hoc]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

That's not my mate, that's a photo I found on the internet.

[Andy C]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

Ganja, the cape was known as a mantle in the olden days hence the word mantlepiece, the bit over the fireplace where you could hang your soggy cape.
No doubt someone wiser than me will come on tell me i am wrong.

I think that's close, but not quite right. The bit about mantle (or mantel) being a term for cloak or cape is correct, but I understand that the connection with mantelpiece is just that the earliest structures for venting a fireplace were basically hoods over the fire and so were called "mantels" because of their physical similarity with cloaks.

[Andy C]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

Similarly a gas mantle was a sort of mesh "cloak" around a gas outlet that was made of some sort of stuff that would become incandescent when the flame was lit.

[Hofzinser]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

Faked letter from a theatre in London offering to put on a play I sent to them when I was 17. They've apologised many times over. I'm scheduled to forgive them completely in 2031.

Ouch.

[Lucia Lanigan]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

I bought a really good wool cape for a Hallowe'en party last year, and I can kind of see the point of them as a result. When you're already wearing all your wool but you're still freezing, a cape's a good option for going one warmer. And you get total coverage in harsh weather conditions, so your coat wouldn't get worn out so quickly.

But you do look either Draculish or thesboid, so there's no getting away with it in the modern world.

(Unless you're MGMT.)

[linus]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

Capes probably lost ground right around the time people stopped riding horses, they were much more practical for riders than long coats.

I'd love to get ahold of a good wool one, but it's rare to come across any at vintage stores.

[Mumpo]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

'Thesboid' - love it. If Google is anything to go by, you've just invented a word.

[Mumpo]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

Quick, someone phone Victoria Coren.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

I had a Victorian policeman's cape. Bought it somewhere off Carnaby street. My mum freaked out and cut it to bits with a pair of garden shears. My sister watched her do it. It was the first intimation either of us had that she might be playing with a deck of 50 or less. (My mum not my sister.)

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

There's an old man in this town who can be seen wearing a black cape during the winter.

[Bored Of Education]

Men don’t wear capes anymore

That's a Johnny Cash lyric, isn't it?

[Greenlander]

Men don’t wear capes anymore



It will be bold! Dramatic!

Yeah!

Heroic!

Yeah. Something classic, like, like Dynaguy.

Oh, he had a great look! Oh, the cape and the boots...

No capes!

Isn't that my decision?

Do you remember Thunderhead? Tall, storm powers? Nice man, good with kids.

Listen, E...

November 15th of '58! All was well, another day saved, when... his cape snagged on a missile fin!

Thunderhead was not the brightest bulb...

Stratogale! April 23rd, '57! Cape caught in a jet turbine!

E, you can't generalize about these things...

Metaman, express elevator! Dynaguy, snagged on takeoff! Splashdown, sucked into a vortex!

No capes!