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The 'Nehru jacket' is a hip-length tailored coat for men or women, with a ''stand-up'' or "mandarin" collar, and modeled on the South Asian achkan or sherwani, an apparel worn by Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India from 1947 to 1964. However, unlike the achkan, which falls somewhere below the knees of the wearer, the Nehru jacket is not only shorter, but also, in all respects other than the collar, resembles the suit jacket.
The apparel was created in India in the 1940s as ''Band Gale Ka Coat'' (Hindi/Urdu: "Closed Neck Coat") and has been popular on the subcontinent since, especially as the top half of a suit worn on formal occasions. It began to be marketed as the ''Nehru jacket'' in the West in the mid-1960s, and was briefly popular there in the late 1960s and early 1970s, its popularity spurred by growing awareness of ethnic diversity, by the minimalism of the Mod lifestyle, and, in particular, by the Beatles, who popularized the garment.

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Notable wearers

See also

External links

Notable wearers

★ Johnny Carson was commissioned to wear Nehru jackets on his show during the mid-1970s, in the hopes of making them popular again.

★ A popular uniform among James Bond villains. Dr. No, the first Bond villain, wears a Nehru jacket in the film of the same name. Kamal Khan also wears several Nehru jackets in ''Octopussy''. In ''Tomorrow Never Dies'', Elliot Carver wears the same black Nehru Jacket throughout the movie, as does ''Moonraker'''s Hugo Drax. However, Bond's arch-enemy, SPECTRE chieftain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, wears a Mao jacket in ''You Only Live Twice'' and ''Diamonds Are Forever''.

★ The villain Dr. Evil, from the action-comedy series ''Austin Powers'', wears Nehru jackets in a spoof and nod to Dr. No of the Bond films.

★ No doubt because of its association with sophisticated villainy, the Doctor's arch enemy the Master in ''Doctor Who'' is often to be seen wearing a black Nehru jacket in his earliest appearances (starting with ''Terror of the Autons'').

★ Sammy Davis Jr. claimed to have over 200 Nehru jackets.

★ Homi K. Bhabha often wears Nehru jackets; his shirts also often have Nehru collars despite being paired with a western-style suit.

★ Televangelist Benny Hinn often wears a Nehru jacket.

★ Steven Seagal wears Nehru jackets, as well as a variety of other Asiatic styles.

★ "Weird Al" Yankovic is wearing a Nehru jacket in the afterlife in his song "Everything you Know is Wrong" found on the album Bad Hair Day.

★ In the popular Harry Potter movies, Severus Snape (played by Alan Rickman) is almost always shown wearing a black robe with a black Nehru jacket-like upperpiece. In the book, it is assumed that he wears simple black robes.

See also

★ Mao suit

★ Sherwani

★ Achkan

★ Mandarin collar

External links

★ http://www.badfads.com/pages/fashion/nehru.html

★ http://www.seanparnell.com/Nehru%20Jacket/Nehru%20Jacket.htm