Young Indy's Clothes
 

So, I've been rewatching some of the Young Indy DVDs and I really don't think that Indy's clothes suit him. The billowing suits and the baggy overcoats seem a little sloppy for Indy's powerful demeanor when he's older. There aren't any rumblings of his adventure gear at all. It's like his style totally changed. I would have liked to have seen a younger Indy wearing the kahkis and the boots and leather jacket. It would have been cool if we saw how he attained his bag too.

Well the bag is easy to explain--It was a WWI gas mask bag, I'm sure he picked one up at some point.

We do see him wearing leather jackets in some of the movies, just not the bomber style jacket he later came to use.

I agree though--It would've been nice to see him wear the ''Indy gear'' at some point--personally I'd have preferred the series to end with him donning the gear for the first time and going on a real adventure, though we have the Bantam novels to see him become Indy anyway--the novels begin later the same year the TV series ends and in the first few Indy still has some of the idealism we see in the series, but gradually it fades and by McCoy's novels he's the nearly ruthless Indy we see in TOD.
The character comes full circle really--Starting off as an idealistic youth in 1912, becoming a hardened adventurer throughout the 20s to 1936, and finally gaining back some of his ''purer'' self in LC.

His treasure hunting adventures start with ''It belongs in a museum!", goes through a period of ethical shadiness, where he almost goes to the ''dark side'' and comes full circle with ''It belongs in a museum'' in LC.

In the context of the show itself, I think IJ's clothes were probably thrown together by him since he was usually in perilous situations and couldn't really find time to properly dress himself (or go to a tailor).

That being said, in the context of the making of the show, it seems like a lot of care was spent on making IJ's outift(s) look a certain way - Around the time that YIJC was originally airing on TV, I remember reading an article somewhere (possily the Lucasfilm Fan club magazine, now the SW Insider) that there was a lot of care/attention paid to Indy's clothes to make them not only look authentic, but to have them "fit" the various head-gear he was wearing. Since he usually wore the infamous "hat" (except for the WW I episodes) they had to make the clothes he wore fit with the hat. It may not have looked like this when watching the show, but I think the clothes are probably intentionally subtle and not meant to stand out (that's just my opinion, though).

Nope. It was a WWII bag. Wasn't around til the 40s.

The distinctive 'Indy-style' that we have all come to know and love, didn't come in to fashion untill the 1930's. The clothes young Indy wears are representative of the time. And as phantom train pointed out, they do indeed fit the hat.

People tend to change the way they look over the years. I mean if I look at some of the clothes I wore as a teenager, I tend to go "Oh my God, what was I thinking?". But somehow I thought the batman T-shirt was cool... ;)

So to me it would have made no sense at all for young Indy to wear the 'outfit'....