Alexander Leathers "Indiana" jacket

[majormajor]

Here's a pic (which has been on here before) from "Only Angels Have Wings" made in 1939.

Maybe someone could make a repro of this one. Similarly drapey, like the Raiders thing, but with a closer fit (not hanging off his shoulders) and much smaller pockets.

I suspect that it was real, rather than a wardrope dept creation (Cary Grant's A1 was given shoulder pads, but all the other stuff looked genuine)....

 

[Edward]

Film geeks will turn any old shite into gold with time and opportunity.

Key thing about Raiders costume for me is that it was a cheaply made bit of 1980's imitating (just) the 1930's. The jacket was poorly made out of cheap lamb with aluminum zips and the pattern was badly designed and slips all over Ford as he moves. Ask anyone at Club Obi Wan, the Indy Gear fan site. It's also why some people love the jacket. It's the opposite to Aero in every way - a film prop to be watched, not worn. Of course, if you get a properly designed and adapted version, with a tweaked pattern - whether it be by G&B or Al - and it's made of a decent hide, there's no reason why you can't go real world exploring in one. Give me a half-belt...

Heh.... It was interesting when Aero, under previous management, briefly looked at doing one of these. Seems to me there wasn't the market for the design among the hardcore jacket crowd who would prefer a halfbelt (designing it from scratch now, or at least 'reimagining' Indy, I'd be starting from the idea of a 30s halfbelt design with the addition of patch pockets). On the flipside, the cosplay crowd would have been likely to reject Aero's much sturdier hides as "wrong", being not exactly what was worn in the film. Also reasonable that someone looking for a costume to be worn a couple of times a year in a conference centre convention environment would be unlikely to want to spend Aero money on one jacket. £500+ would more than double the cost of putting that costume together once you include all the other bits. In between two stools...

Myself, I'd long had that itch for an Indy but didn't want to spend the big bucks. I eventually bought a Wested Raiders in goat, worn only once, for less than half the new price. Softer than the Aero goat, but doesn't have the sense that it will tear the first time you lean against a brick wall, as does lamb. (I like sturdy leather, me - that's what comes of having cut my leather teeth on bike leathers in the eighties.) By the time I bought, I was really looking for a Summer leather jacket that could be worn in the sort of heat where I still need a jacket, but have been forced out of my heavier horse and steer jackets. For that, it's perfect. I can certainly understand why they chose lamb for the film jackets: anything heavier would have been unbearable in the sort of heat in which they were filming, plus it is easily distressed... and it's not as if the jackets had to last any longer than a few weeks of filming anyhow. Still, interesting to see how iconic it has become. I wonder did the costumers who picked out Brando's Perfecto (or Perfecto style - I know there are those out there who claim it was not in fact a Schott) or Dean's Antifreeze had any more of a notion as to how iconic it would become... Intersting field of work, I imagine, especially when they have to take into account practicalities as well as simply the look. I know certain aspects of the Indy jacket were tweaked to suit need. The vents were added to make it easier to get at the whip, while for Last Crusade pockets were made bigger to accommodate the Grail Diary. Anyhow, I'm digressing....

 

[Seb Lucas]

Interesting observations, Edward. On the other hand, Indy didn't have to wear leather, he could have worn a clasic cotton tropical explorer jacket or no jacket. The film was so much fun it wouldn't have mattered. I think the concept art with Indy in a leather jacket sold the idea to the director and costumer. And it's a film cliche for the adventurer to wear an A1 or A2 style jacket. For personal choice, I prefer a ligher, softer hide, like goat. Over here you don't often enjoy wearing heavier hides.

The other strange thing about Indy fans who wear costume items, many of them wear that jacket all the time - for years. It ain't just for fancy dress to them.

It is also funny how silly items can become iconic just by being in a popular movie. No reflection on the items, really. It's how advertising and product placement work.

 

[Worf]

Interesting observations, Edward. On the other hand, Indy didn't have to wear leather, he could have worn a clasic cotton tropical explorer jacket or no jacket. The film was so much fun it wouldn't have mattered. I think the concept art with Indy in a leather jacket sold the idea to the director and costumer. And it's a film cliche for the adventurer to wear an A1 or A2 style jacket. For personal choice, I prefer a ligher, softer hide, like goat. Over here you don't often enjoy wearing heavier hides.

The other strange thing about Indy fans who wear costume items, many of them wear that jacket all the time - for years. It ain't just for fancy dress to them.

It is also funny how silly items can become iconic just by being in a popular movie. No reflection on the items, really. It's how advertising and product placement work.

Ah but that's just it... MOST product placement doesn't work! People don't leave a movie craving a Pepsi simpley because Mary or John Rottencrotch was slurpin' one in the latest vampire/zombie/glee mash-up. The things that seem to become iconic are often, like in Raiders, things no one was paying attention to. I went to see Raiders 4 times that summer because I'd read pulp reprints in my teens (Doc Savage, Conan, The Shadow) and had seen serials re-broadcast on Public Television. As a result Raiders was like seeing my adolescent fantasies bought to life in full technocolor... And while I loved it, I never felt the need to play dress-up because of it... curious.

Worf

 

[Edward]

Interesting observations, Edward. On the other hand, Indy didn't have to wear leather, he could have worn a clasic cotton tropical explorer jacket or no jacket. The film was so much fun it wouldn't have mattered. I think the concept art with Indy in a leather jacket sold the idea to the director and costumer. And it's a film cliche for the adventurer to wear an A1 or A2 style jacket. For personal choice, I prefer a ligher, softer hide, like goat. Over here you don't often enjoy wearing heavier hides.

I agree it could have worked as well without leather, though it was such an obvious visual reference to the source material. Sometimes I wonder how things might look today if Indy had (as in the test-shots) worn an A2... Or even an A1. Would there be more A1 types available today had he done that?

I hear you on the lighter hides in Auz. I suspect a single Summer down there would kill me. And probably the Winters...

The other strange thing about Indy fans who wear costume items, many of them wear that jacket all the time - for years. It ain't just for fancy dress to them.

I suppose because it is so practical some elements of the costume do just wear very well day to day. I can't imagine wanting to go out in the whole hog, though... Actually, because I wear the jacket as a Summer leather, it tends to be with an Akubra Capricorn, or a cotton cap of some sort rather than the furfelt... I wore it in India in February with the Capricorn, a pair of khakis and a light blue shirt and cravat... Worked well. The whole outfit is really practical, but yeah.... costumey if worn all at once....

It is also funny how silly items can become iconic just by being in a popular movie. No reflection on the items, really. It's how advertising and product placement work.

Or even a poor quality item, or - as Worf notes - an item that it never occurred to anyone involved in making it...

I'm vaguely reminded here of Mark Twain's musing in Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer about the.... Barlow(?) knife, which could only posibly be improved by a counterfeit and yet was wildly popular....

 

[Seb Lucas]

Good reference to the Barlow knife. I had a bad fake one which I got purely because I was obsessed with Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer when I was 13.

Worf you're right most product placement doesn't work but a lot of it does, which, I guess is why corporates still battle to get their brand onto a cinema screen. Incidentally after Michael J Fox drank Pepsi in Back to the Future, it became huge over here with my generation.

But people have always tried to dress like their heroes so pretty much any major film success has popuralised hair styles and clothes. And jackets seem to strike a particular cord.