When I first moved to Armenia I wasn’t super sure what to do with my extra time. I was kept busy with language learning but sticking around and speaking all day got very tiring so I wanted a hobby that let me unwind. At the time I had recently seen a reddit post about a custom embroidered Discworld themed jean jacket. Already having a Skating Polly themed jacket I thought what if I make a battle jacket?

Battle Jackets are interesting things. Plenty of communities like making them. And each group thinks it should be done in a different way. While I think I most closely align with the Punk movement I don’t listen to a ton of “classic” Punk. I know what an oxymoron. I didn’t have access to any patches, nor t-shirts for classic prints I rekindled my old embroidery hobby.

So without further ado… Let me present my current iteration of my Battle Jacket.

Yeah… It’s kinda empty. But in my defense doing everything by hand instead of sewing on patches takes a lot more time. We’ll go over each patch and I’ll include a little bit about why I like the artist so much.

Starting with the center piece on the back we see Skating Polly. This is currently the only mixed media piece on the jacket. I started with a light pink base coat and used sharpie and pens to copy over a design from a T-shirt of theirs I love. The pink took quite a few coats and stained the hell out of my hand but the result was worth it.

Skating Polly has been my favorite band since I saw them live at Antoin’s in Austin Texas. Each piece on the back should be a favorite of some kinda in my head so I thought they would be a perfect statement piece. I remember listening to their album “the make it all show” and being unimpressed but the bands presence on stage turned me into a complete believer.

At the top of the jacket is my favorite singer Lorde. This piece took the most blood sweat and tears by far. I think I spent about 40 manhours getting each stitch in. These large blocky letters are a lot of space to fill. I way underestimated the amount of gold I would need. Which is actually the reason for the gradient across the colors. Personally I think it turned out better this way. The bridge between the back and collar of the jacket was particularly annoying to fill in.

Lorde got me into music. Before I wasn’t a fan of anything outside of whatever old CDs my parents kept in the car. I remember her first album Pure Heroine being released for free on Google Music along with Demon Days by Imagine Dragons. I would listen to the two on repeat in class day after day. Then melodrama came out when I was moving cities. Each subsequent album has come out at some important milestone in my life. Solar Polar releasing when I graduate college. And Virgin releasing when my parents visited me here in Armenia.

So who’s on the front? Starting from the top we have Lucy Camp. A Mexican-American rapper I love. This patch is a bit risky to wear here in Gyumri due to the opinions of locals about LGBT issues but I haven’t had an issue yet being careful with where I wear my jacket.

Then we have The Warning. I first heard their song spit in a music video on youtube for the game blasphemous. I loved it. Their a rock-ish band from Mexico with a great sound.

Next to The Warning is Haze. I love Haze. They’re an all female punk rock band from Japan. My friend sent me their song Hikikomori rock when it released and I’ve been following them sense. I especially like the lead singer’s vocals.

Across the buttons we have Cage the Elephant. I’ve been a Cage the Elephant fan since “Tell me I’m pretty”. One of my more embarrassing moments is bragging about how niche my music taste was to my cousin in his car one thanksgiving. Citing Cage the Elephant of what made me different from other kids. Blegh…

To the right we have Metric. Metric is an interesting band. I knew many of their songs before I knew they were Metric. My favorite album of theirs must be Synthetica. Songs like Speed the Collapse and Breathing Underwater get me everytime.

Finally we have Black Dresses down in the corner. Their a great band in what’s affectionately called traumacore. Their album “Love and Affection for Stupid Little Bitches” was my go to studying album.

That’s it for now. I hope to add some more to the jacket including a large Watsky and Death Insurance Patch on the back. The front will take some time to fill but I plan to buy some patches when I’m back in America.