The Real McCoy’s A-2 “The Mickey of Mars” Hand-Painted Flight Jacket Attributed to Hiroshi Okamoto, Size 44

An A-2 by The Real McCoy’s whose back was hand-painted with “The Mickey of Mars”, a cartoon bomb-run fantasy attributed, by connoisseurship rather than documentation, to the brand’s founder Hiroshi Okamoto. Said to have been worn by him and later displayed high on a store wall, it records a creator testing how far an A-2 can be pushed.

The Piece

A brown horsehide A-2 flight jacket by The Real McCoy’s, size 44, with the reverse intricately hand-painted in a dynamic and unconventional “The Mickey of Mars” composition. Cartoon bomb imagery, stylized typography and floral explosion motifs are executed with notable confidence and balance across the panel; the experimental nose-art composition places the piece at the intersection of military reproduction and personal artistic expression.

The jacket is attributed to Hiroshi Okamoto, founder and creative force behind The Real McCoy’s. According to its provenance narrative, it was originally not for sale and was displayed high on a wall inside a Real McCoy’s store; it was worn personally by Okamoto; and the entire artwork was hand-painted by him. It was conceived not as a commercial prototype but as a personal expression piece, built around a single question: how far can an A-2 be made flashy without losing its authenticity and identity.

Mickey is rendered mid-action, almost airborne, beside a bomb lettered “Special High Explosives”, while explosions bloom like cartoon chrysanthemums. The typography reads “The Mickey of Mars / Bundles for get”, an intentionally playful distortion. The composition balances WWII nose art, pop surrealism and parody: wartime nose art was already rebellious, and here it is pushed further into controlled absurdity, yet still sits correctly on an A-2.

The A-2 stands for discipline, regulation and military austerity; the painting brings chaos, personality, humor and individuality. That tension is the concept of the piece, a thesis experiment showing that the identity of the A-2 can be stretched without breaking. It will interest advanced Real McCoy’s collectors, for whom it may be a one-off internal piece; military jacket archives; collectors of wearable art; and Americana and pop-culture collectors drawn to the meeting of parody and war art.

Details

• Maker: The Real McCoy’s
• Model: A-2 flight jacket (hand-painted)
• Artist: Attributed to Hiroshi Okamoto, founder and creative force behind The Real McCoy’s
• Material: Horsehide, deep brown
• Size: 44 (XL)
• Artwork: “The Mickey of Mars” back painting: Mickey mid-action, bomb lettered “Special High Explosives”, floral explosion motifs, typography “The Mickey of Mars / Bundles for get”
• Provenance: Originally not for sale; displayed high on a wall inside a Real McCoy’s store; worn personally by Okamoto
• Documentation: None: no signature, no certificate
• Category: Vintage military flight jacket / wearable art / collector archive piece

Condition

• Worn by the artist, with real age-related wear rather than artificial distressing: a lived object rather than a preserved archive piece.
• Leather shows age cracking, edge flaking and natural patina from actual wear.
• Knits at cuffs and waist remain clean and strong.
• Interior clean, in very good condition.

Authenticity & Care

A connoisseur-level attribution rather than a documented one: there is no signature, certificate or direct proof. The story aligns with Okamoto’s known personality, the style fits Real McCoy’s experimental lineage, the execution quality is extremely high and the store-display origin is plausible. Every piece is examined and documented in Japan before dispatch and is offered with the Japonista authenticity guarantee.

Delivery from Japan

Packed by hand in Japan and shipped insured and tracked by EMS or an equivalent express service. Import duties and taxes, where applicable, are payable on arrival. Every sale is final; please ask anything you wish to know before you buy, and see our published policy.

Every figure above is taken by hand with the garment laid flat, in centimetres. Lay a shirt or jacket you already love beside them and allow a centimetre or two of margin, the quiet safeguard on a final sale. Our size guide to tops and jackets turns pit-to-pit figures into US, UK, EU and Japanese sizes, and for anything it leaves open the curator team replies within one Tokyo business day.

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