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Navy, Captain, Military Attire I see at Tiki Events and Bars?

Hello All - I'm a newbie :) I asked a buddy of mine about a jacket I had acquired that looks pretty similar to a captains Blazer. I was exited at first as I thought it went along with the the pop culture of tiki. I was surprised to hear that it in fact does not fit in the tiki culture. Why do I see so much of it at Tiki Bars and events?
 
It’s getting more and more difficult to separate beach themes and Tiki. For an insightful look at Tiki take a look at The book of Tiki by Sven Kirsten. I think each person can decide for themselves how they want their Tiki bar to look, but it is slowly being diluted with parrots, neon signs and jimmy buffet.

Welcome to the forum!

Mahalo for posting!
 
Nothing like diving in at the deep end.
I've been trying to work out what makes something Tiki. Sven is so so insightful as to what out is.
It used to be so much simpler I guess when it was back forgotten and niche. Now its got so big that folk that build bars at home or commercially add stuff that isnt Tiki but as they are in to them they adopt this. Be it Star Wars or some other strain of pop culture or even what gets called Clown Tiki (Bright and Tacky).
Its become big business to gratify those new scenes too. So it's easy to blur the lines. I'm guilty of that in some respect too. "Tiki Adjacent" is probably a good phrase for this. For me its simpler the stuff in my bar that isnt tiki, isnt tiki. There will be a story to why its there but its not Tiki.
I myself toyed with how to grade all the newly adopted realms of tiki. I was trying to have it like a teared system of a kind initially. It's not that easy the lines are so blurred and no matter how open you try to be there will be elements of this now broad church that will offend as it doesn't fit in the persons parameters of what is Tiki.
If you need enlightenment on what makes it tiki check out Tiki with Ray Episodes 66 and also Tiki with Ray Live! Building Your First Home Tiki Bar - Endless Summer 8/19/2023 which has some very good viewpoints from different viewpoints.
Hey above all its down to taste and that will always evolve. Lets see this Jacket!!!!

 
Let me just chime in to add that while there are many, many elements that are not tiki in and of themselves, they can and do fit comfortably within a tiki context. The Creature from the Black Lagoon is a great example. It is not tiki. You may deck out your bar space with every bit of ephemera related to the Creature and make it look like an underwater lagoon found somewhere deep in the Amazon. This will not make it tiki. But you can add the ol' GIll-Man to an existing tiki space and he fits right in. I have one. Many other tikiphiles incorporate Gill successfully as well. More broadly, nautical decor--ship's wheels, rigging, wooden grates, portholes--isn't tiki either, but almost every great tiki space I've been in (including the hallowed Mai Kai) incorporates nautical extensively.

When you said "Captain's Jacket" I immediately thought WWII ship's captain in the Pacific theater. Lots of folks incorporate WWII themes into their tiki space--James Michener's Tales from the South Pacific is a foundational text of the early tiki movement, after all. But after reading the comments I'm thinking your "Captain's Jacket" is more along the lines of yacht rock, which is a relatively new (and ironic) addition to the tiki scene that isn't universally accepted.
 
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