EWF Love

Listen to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DSVDcw6iW8"; target="_blank">'A Real Hero' by College & Electric Youth</a>. Then, imagine yourself (cycling-link:"glorious","transcendent", "brilliant", "whole", "[[the freest you've ever been->Wearing jacket]]").

You're effortlessly confident and cool. You're completely calm, at peace with the world and [[all it holds->You're wearing it]].

The scorpion jacket from //Drive// is a white, silk bomber jacket with a rib-knit collar and a large, golden scorpion embroidered on the back. //GQ// describes it as (cycling-link:"'the piece of //Drive// outerwear that turned Ryan Gosling into Ryan Fucking Gosling'","'the jacket that made Ryan Gosling a style hero'","'[[an iconic look to ascend from A-list actor to post-human god->You Fucking You]]'").

Let's take a moment to understand the context of this jacket. //Drive// is a 2011 neo-noir crime film directed by [[Nicolas Winding Refn->Nicolas Winding Refn]]. The screenplay was written by [[Hossein Amini->Hossein Amini]], adapted from the novel of the same name by [[James Sallis->James Sallis]]. It stars [[Ryan Gosling->Ryan Gosling]] as a stunt driver by day and getaway driver by night. And in //Drive//, Ryan Gosling wears [[the scorpion jacket from //Drive//->Description of the scorpion jacket]]. The jacket you're now [[wearing->Love jacket]].

You're listening to the main theme from //Drive//. You [[love->Love]] [[the scorpion jacket from //Drive//->Description of the scorpion jacket]]. This is not a replica of [[the scorpion jacket from //Drive//->Description of the scorpion jacket]]. This is important, because [[the scorpion jacket from //Drive//->Description of the scorpion jacket]] was [[designed specifically for the movie->Jacket design]]. It did not exist before the film, and despite its popularity after the film's release, any similar jackets you can find are not truly the same. This is why, in wearing it, you are feeling this [[love->Love]]. You are feeling things you have [[never felt before->Why such love]].

Audiences, too, adored the jacket, and sought meaning in it. According to an analysis on (cycling-link:"Quora","a platform to ask questions of other users","one of the funniest websites on the planet"): 'The more the movie proceeds, the more we see [[Driver->Driver]]'s violent and lethal side. He's surely accustomed to violence and death, as his reactions to the events are anything but ordinary, indeed natural. 'The brutal kills clash with the methodical and controlled approach of the frog, which in the fable dies ... A possible reading of [the ending] is that he's a scorpion, he knows his nature and doesn't want to hurt the people he loves because he will sooner or later sting again. 'Or he's just a badass frog, it's up to you.' It's up to [[you->Assess the jacket]].

So [[the scorpion jacket from //Drive//->Description of the scorpion jacket]] is not just [[the scorpion jacket from //Drive//->Description of the scorpion jacket]]. It's (cycling-link:"possibility","a promise","an open highway on your back"). It's post-(cycling-link:"irony","sincerity","modern","reason","taste","human","meaning"). It's using pop culture as a replacement for a personality. It's an enquiry into self-worth and capitalism, aesthetics and community, criticism and how we should act toward others. It's imagining a world where you could wear something like that and feel not just respected but [[admired->Ending]].

It's all of these things, [[the scorpion jacket from //Drive//->Description of the scorpion jacket]]. And so you love it, even if you [[don't->Love ending]].

You're wearing [[the scorpion jacket from //Drive//->Scorpion jacket]].

This means [[the scorpion jacket from //Drive//->Description of the scorpion jacket]] is a piece of outerwear that (cycling-link:"turns You into Fucking You","makes you a style hero","[[allows you to ascend from A-list actor to post-human god->Life changed]]").

You're not the person you were before you put this jacket on. Your life is now carved into two periods: before and after you were wearing [[the scorpion jacket from //Drive//->Description of the scorpion jacket]]. There's [[no going back->Drive explanation]].

The scorpion jacket from //Drive// is a white, silk bomber jacket with a rib-knit collar and a large, golden scorpion embroidered on the back. Style magazine //GQ// describes it as (cycling-link:"'the piece of //Drive// outerwear that turned Ryan Gosling into Ryan Fucking Gosling'","'the jacket that made Ryan Gosling a style hero'","'an iconic look to ascend from A-list actor to post-human god'"). And (link-undo:"you're wearing it").

Nicolas Winding Refn has also directed (cycling-link:"//Valhalla Rising//","//Only God Forgives//","//The Neon Demon//","//Too Old to Die Young//") and many other works of cinema and television, predominantly across action, crime and horror. But we're talking about the film that won Refn Best Director at [[Cannes Film Festival->Cannes Film Festival]]: [[//Drive//->Drive explanation]].

Hossein Amini is a screenwriter who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 1997 film //The Wings of the Dove//. For his work on //Drive//, Amini won the Best Adapted Screenplay award from the Austin Film Critics Association. Later, for his directorial debut, he wrote and directed an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel //The Two Faces of January//. But we're talking about the movie [[//Drive//->Drive explanation]].

James Sallis is a crime writer, also known for his science fiction, criticism and poetry. His best known novels feature detective Lew Griffin. But let's get back to [[//Drive//->Drive explanation]].

You know who Ryan Gosling is, at least vaguely. Anyway, he starred in the 2011 film //[[Drive->Drive explanation]]//.

According to costume designer [[Erin Benach->Erin Benach]], speaking to //Grantland//, the team went through 15 or 20 iterations before they got the jacket right. 'We knew the collar had to be able to pop up, we wanted the knit around the wrists and waist to be 100 percent wool as opposed to stretchy nylon. We wanted every element to be perfect.' And it is perfect, and [[it's yours->Love jacket]].

Cannes Film Festival is one of the biggest film festivals in the world. Across 2017 and 2018, the festival engaged in a power struggle with streaming service Netflix over eligibility criteria for their films. To this day, Netflix is unable to compete in the festival. This battle is one of the most significant in determining the future of cinema: how we will watch and engage with it, who will be allowed to make it, what we consider the boundaries of film, television and content. Much about our lives that we consider fixed and fundamental will eventually change. This is just one example of a distant, elite disagreement that will shift our experiences, even as many of us never notice. What will never change is this: in 2011, the award for Best Director was won by [[Nicolas Winding Refn->Nicolas Winding Refn]].

Erin Benach is a prolific Hollywood costume designer. She has worked on (cycling-link:"//Half Nelson//","//Blue Valentine//","//The Lincoln Lawyer//","//Midnight Special//","//A Star is Born//","//Birds of Prey//") and many other films. And she created the perfect [[jacket->Jacket design]].

Here we go. Is [[the scorpion jacket from //Drive//->Description of the scorpion jacket]] truly something that can be loved? Can the experience of wearing it be described as love? What is [[love->Love meaning]]?

Maybe it's a sincere desire to engage with cultural tropes of masculinity and violence, and how and why fans seek to replicate the style of anti-heroes and criminals. Maybe it's an interest, with a layer of ironic distance, in the gauche appearance of the jacket itself, when considered outside its context. Maybe it's a vision of yourself as the kind of person who could get away with wearing a jacket like this without being subject to ridicule. You could go on //Q&A// and people would write thirsty tweets about you instead of dragging you straight to hell. Maybe it's an aesthetic obsession, an object you want to break down and contextualise and understand and replicate. It's an item to understand. Maybe it's possibility, the knowledge that this particular jacket brings people joy and adventure and a brief experience of an identity they crave, even if they might never call it their own. Maybe it's an awareness that there are multiple ways to engage with [[the scorpion jacket from //Drive//->Description of the scorpion jacket]] that sparks this delight. Because ironic, sincere, distant or close, [[the scorpion jacket from //Drive//->Description of the scorpion jacket]] contains [[it all->Love meaning]].

Love, at its most basic, is a feeling of attraction or attachment. In this sense, yes, it is possible to love [[the scorpion jacket from //Drive//->Description of the scorpion jacket]]. But love carries more weight than that. So, loving a jacket could be seen as flippant. Even loving how a jacket makes you feel could be viewed as insincere or self-indulgent. This is the thing: loving [[the scorpion jacket from //Drive//->Description of the scorpion jacket]] is – at the same time – both an act of complete irony and total sincerity. The jacket is an artefact. It's a perfect [[symbol of multiple cultural moments and trends->What the jacket captures]]. So, in a way, [[the scorpion jacket from //Drive//->Description of the scorpion jacket]] is worthy of some kind of affection, even if that affection [[splits into the infinite->Love jacket]].

This is Ryan Gosling's character in the film //Drive//. You probably (link-undo:"knew that").