Avery Trufelman

Which makes sense when you think about it.

Franco had just died in 1975.

Spain was getting rid of surplus from the last regime.

Mel and Patricia bought all 500 shirts.

And they sold these shirts at the Sausalito flea market.

It was just little touches of style.

But these flourishes were all Patricia and Mel needed to stand out.

In 1978, Patricia and Mel set up a tiny shop in Mill Valley.

There were a number of boutiques like this.

There was Commander Salamander in D.C., the cockpit in New York, Camp Beverly Hills in L.A., all who stalked, recut, re-dyed, zhooshed up military surplus.

It was such a phenomenon that it was actually spoofed on Saturday Night Live.

As Charles McFarlane put it to me, the students who were wearing field jackets in the 1960s grew up.

They cut their hair.

They got jobs.

They became conventional bourgeoisie.

But they kept their Grateful Dead records and their penchant for surplus field jackets.

Yes.

Surplus comes from big, massive militaries with lots of cheap excess sloshing around.

The end of the draft led to a smaller, tighter army that can be accounted for.

There doesn't end up being that much left over.