Recent content by zebedee

Ripstop repair tape and PlasticMagic. Tenacious Tape would be a better option, I think.

it worked fine, although I sent it off for a total zip replacement a year or so later.

I have some from last year. I'll take some more soon. Also, a Café Racer that I have similarly worn without any sense of self-preservation. The Highwayman is brown fqhh; the Café Racer is battered seal HH. I really want Battered Tan to make a comeback so that I can get a Plainsman in it - if...

I'm interested in a Plainsman in Natural CXL, but want it to be beige-brown and not like the unfinished hides... Anyone know if I'm on the right track? I wish they still had the battered tan...

No, probably not - one broken outer stitch on mid- to high-priced leather jackets won't cause a problem. I have three jackets with a broken stitch and none has ever unravelled or lead to any deterioration at all. This is mainly due to the fact that there is internal stitching, too.

The first serious leather jacket I owned was a Highwayman in brown fqhh from Aero. I didn't like it when I got it out of the box - it seemed too heavy, felt like a suitcase and I was annoyed to have spent all that money on it. It took a month or so to be comfortable It's 16 years old now and...

Wear it in all weathers and to pubs where you should try to get many drinks in. Walk it home (better if raining: surpassingly brilliant if a monsoon). Repeat this as often as possible. Steerhide has been far harder to wear in and therefore tougher on the liver.

I learned a lot and bought too many jackets. It also saved what was (arguably) left of my sanity during a 3 month solitary lockdown in Shanghai during the pandemic.

I envy people who can pull off the Aero Café Racer fit - I find that I have to size up two sizes in CR (and then it's marginally too big in a 44) - the size 42 is slightly too tight. I can just about zip up the size 42s if I swim regularly, but I'm safer with Half Belts and the Maxwell styles.

I've been lucky in that I've only had one 'bad' zip. If I could afford the time, I'd get Riri or Universal put on all my jackets.

This happened to me years ago with a LHB. I had to get it over my head and remove it like a sweater. It was a serious struggle, I tell ya. Part of the problem is that a lot of the leathers used are much heavier than Talon zippers of the size used were presumably designed for. I think my tan...

I wear a size 40, which is my actual size. It is boxy, but that doesn't worry me, because I am boxy, too:

That's not many jackets. Keep them all.

William Lennon's are a regular feature for me. I have the Chukkas in black rough out, boots in tan leather and some modified ones in brown. At the price (well under 300 GBP), I've yet to find anything better.

Formal wear for work seems to have persuaded my colleagues that I can pretty much wear what I like when I choose to, but HK has so many odd and transient fashions that even a Simmons Bilt V2 in Mahogany (i.e. orange/tan or an Aero CR in tan steer hide) is reasonably conservative :)