A coat with an image of Malcom McDowell as Alex DeLarge in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ (a bargain at $1,380).
 
Recently we shared with you the wildly overpriced, hideous Captain Beefheart designer silk shirt that nobody asked for. Now, direct from the “nobody asked for this shit” department comes a line of high-priced coats containing disturbing visuals from Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film, A Clockwork Orange.

Because nothing says high fashion like a giant tormented image of Alex DeLarge (played by Malcolm McDowell) with his eyes being held open by sharp metal clamps on a coat, here’s a little background. In the scene, DeLarge is going through the horrific, but fictional Ludovico’s Technique, a kind of aversion therapy during which he was forced to watch extremely graphic Nazi imagery. But wait! It gets worse. Kubrick was well known for getting his actors to push themselves to the point of no return. For instance, actress Shelly Duvall shared in an interview in 1980 with Roger Ebert that her character in The Shining, Wendy Torrance, “cried twelve hours a day, all day long,” concluding she spent thirteen months on location essentially in tears. And that’s just one account of Duvall’s difficult experience with Stanley Kubrick. Getting back to the image on the jacket above, the shocking scene was shot in ten excruciating minutes during which McDowell’s corneas were repeatedly scratched. McDowell broke it down in an interview in 2014 like this:

“I didn’t feel at the time, my eyes were anesthetized. In the car going home, I don’t know if you’ve ever scratched your corneas, but you don’t want to do it. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced pain like that before. It was horrible. Like being cut with razor blades.”

Before I go any further, I should say the coat in question is 100% polyester, and it’s the least expensive of the four coats being sold by Moscow-based conceptual clothier (?) SVMOSCOW. If tortured Alex DeLarge isn’t your bag, SVMOSCOW also has a coat featuring an aggressive-looking DeLarge in his Droogs getup, including his massive white codpiece. But honestly, aside from the price tag aligning with a specific demographic, I’m pretty sure if I spotted someone sporting one, they would likely know fuck nor all about what it was based on. To be fair, lots of heavy metal fans can’t name more than one song by the band whose t-shirt they are currently wearing. So the next time you see someone wearing an Iron Maiden shirt, ask them to name their favorite Maiden jam. If they tell you it’s “Run to the Hills,” its a lie. Of course, if these spendy duds are your thing, you can break payments into monthly installments that look like a car payment. See the rest of the worst of the collection below.
 

A variant of the jacket at the top of the post which retails for $2,775.
 

A long coat featuring McDowell as Alex in his Droogs gear, $1,955.
 

Another long coat with an image of Alex DeLarge, $2,135.
 

The official NSFW trailer for ‘A Clockwork Orange.’

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Marquee Buffoon: Japanese fashion line features iconic images of Tom Verlaine and Television
‘Funeral Parade of Roses’: Edgy 1969 Japanese drama that inspired Kubrick’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’
Bad motherf*ckers: Action figures from ‘Pulp Fiction,’ ‘The Shining,’ ‘A Clockwork Orange’ and more
Oliver Reed as a prototype Alex from ‘A Clockwork Orange’ in ‘These are the Damned’
Behind-the-scenes of ‘A Clockwork Orange’: Stanley Kubrick and his Droogie buddies