Lewis Leathers in Fiction For those of you who like a good yarn, check out William Gibson’s 1993 futuristic dystopian novel ‘Virtual Light’, set in San Francisco. In it, the lead character is a courier named Chevette - she borrows a vintage leather jacket from her well travelled friend, Skinner, that happens to be one of ours! Originally mentioned in an earlier 1990 Gibson short story, ‘Skinner’s Room’ (though curiously it calls it Lewis Leathers rather than D Lewis - either way, we think it’s most likely the Bronx No. 384), the jacket is part of Virtual Light’s plot and here are some of the mentions: “[Chevette] wore that jacket everywhere, like some kind of armor. She knew that nanopore was the only thing to wear, riding this time of year, but she wore Skinner’s old horsehide anyway, with her bar-coded Allied badges on the lapels. The little ball-chains on the zippers swinging as she spun to knock that finger aside.” “[Skinner] liked to know where things came from. His jacket, the one she always wore, that had come from D. Lewis, Great Portland Street. That was in London.” “Chevette put her empty cup down on the counter, dug in the pockets of her jacket. Gave the girl fifteen for the two coffees and a two-dollar tip. Squared her shoulders under Skinner’s jacket, the ball-chains rattling.” The original mention in the 1990 short story reads: “His clothes hang from mismatched iron coat hooks screwed at precise intervals along one wall. The girl wears his jacket. Lewis Leathers. Great Portland Street. She asks where that is. Jacket older than she is. Looks at the pictures in National Geographic, crouched there with her bare white feet on the carpet he took from the broken office block.” The Bronx No. 384 for rockers, punk rockers… and cyberpunks bit.ly/LLBronx
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 09:00:00 +0000