ALL REPRO R.A.F. Irvin type jackets

[Spitfire]

Is the Aces High Irvin which is now one of the very best according to many people made by the member who posted here as Jonnyboy a couple of years ago, and who posted examples of his prototypes? Post 757 page 76 currently of this thread.

Yes - the very same. And bloody nice Irvins, they are! I should know - I own the seventh, he made.

You'll find him and his Irvins here: http://www.aceshighjackets.com/

 

[Capesofwrath]

Yes - the very same. And bloody nice Irvins, they are! I should know - I own the seventh, he made.

You'll find him and his Irvins here: http://www.aceshighjackets.com/

Thanks Spit. I thought it must be the same fella. I've just bought an almost unworn ELC one on eBay so I'm not going to be looking elsewhere for a bit though. But you never know I might start getting bitten by the bug. I have always liked Irvins. I liked Biggles when I was a kid too, and used to daydream of flying Sunderland's around the south sea islands, and having a two seat EE Lightning trainer as a private plane which I used to fly around the world in.

A Jungian did put a name to my condition in the end...

 

[hippomaintenance]

Hi All,
I'm going to put the cat among the pigeons here. I was going to buy one of these Irvins when I heard that they were really good. I'm afraid I'm not at all impressed. To me they don't look like a BOB Irvin at all and I have done many years of studying hundreds of BOB pilot photos (Pilot officer Duggie Clift in his Irvin is a great pic if you can find it) before buying two 1940 Eastmans in Broken grain and recently an emaculate Early eastman which is identical to the one Andrew is wearing on Page 112. These I think are the Best repro's ever.

Obviously this is only my opinion. I think it's a case of "To me these are my favourite type" where as some love the Devon fleece type or the multi panel jackets.

Dave.

 

[John Lever]

Let's see some pics please

 

[hippomaintenance]

Hi John,

I'd love to post some pics but my PC is a work one and it doesn't let me post pics on sites. It just comes up with "Company policy violation" or "Refer to Administrator".
Dilip Sarkar brought out about six books a while ago all of photos of BOB Pilots with captions. Lots of those have pilots wearing Irvin's. The photo of Duggie Clift I got off another site. I will try and find it and edit this reply with the site it's on.

Cheers,
Dave.

Hi again John,

I'm now editing this post with the details of the Duggie Clift photo. Go onto Google and type in "Photos of Battle of Britain Pilots" scroll down the page that comes up to "Aviation Collectables" click on that and the page that comes up has photos all down the left hand side with captions. The top of the page should read "Battle of Britain photos-series 1". Then just scroll down till you find Duggie. Duggie Clifts Irvin is identical to my Eastman 1940 broken grain.
I have lots of other photos on my PC here but just can't transfer them over......mind being a PC idiot doesn't help!

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[Capesofwrath]

Hi John,

I'd love to post some pics but my PC is a work one and it doesn't let me post pics on sites. It just comes up with "Company policy violation" or "Refer to Administrator".
Dilip Sarkar brought out about six books a while ago all of photos of BOB Pilots with captions. Lots of those have pilots wearing Irvin's. The photo of Duggie Clift I got off another site. I will try and find it and edit this reply with the site it's on.

Cheers,
Dave.

Hi again John,

I'm now editing this post with the details of the Duggie Clift photo. Go onto Google and type in "Photos of Battle of Britain Pilots" scroll down the page that comes up to "Aviation Collectables" click on that and the page that comes up has photos all down the left hand side with captions. The top of the page should read "Battle of Britain photos-series 1". Then just scroll down till you find Duggie. Duggie Clifts Irvin is identical to my Eastman 1940 broken grain.
I have lots of other photos on my PC here but just can't transfer them over......mind being a PC idiot doesn't help!

Cheers,
Dave.

A link would be useful. The little blue icon fourth from the right on the standard toolbar above the reply box.

You have the option to upload images from your computer direct. Just hover over the icons in the toolbar until it shows Insert Image then choose to upload from the computer.

 

[Capesofwrath]

This one?

 

[aswatland]

This is quite a familiar pictures of Duggie wearing a c. 1938 IAC jacket. Eastman's 1940 Irvins are based on a pre-War IAC design. Here's a picture of a similar pre-War IAC jacket.

 

[hippomaintenance]

Hi,

Yes I've tried that and no go. Lovely Jacket Andrew, and yes that's the pic of Duggie I was on about.

Andrew, I now have an early Eastman identical to yours on page 112 and I find it a lot softer than my broken grain ones. The main gripe I have with the broken grain Eastmans is that the fleece around the cuffs wears out VERY quickly even though I'm very careful when wearing it. I wonder if the earlier Eastman will wear better being softer?

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[Spitfire]

Hi All,
I'm going to put the cat among the pigeons here. I was going to buy one of these Irvins when I heard that they were really good. I'm afraid I'm not at all impressed. To me they don't look like a BOB Irvin at all and I have done many years of studying hundreds of BOB pilot photos (Pilot officer Duggie Clift in his Irvin is a great pic if you can find it) before buying two 1940 Eastmans in Broken grain and recently an emaculate Early eastman which is identical to the one Andrew is wearing on Page 112. These I think are the Best repro's ever.

Obviously this is only my opinion. I think it's a case of "To me these are my favourite type" where as some love the Devon fleece type or the multi panel jackets.

Dave.

To each his own, Dave. I only know that Jon got hold of a original Irvin (in bad shape), took it apart and made his pattern after these pieces.
Then he spent years looking for the right sheepskins as close to the originals as possible, the right tanning as they did it back then, the right thread and the best and most original-looking repro zips.
To me that's close enough.

 

[hippomaintenance]

Well Spitfire.............It does look like a beautiful jacket, it looks great on you, and I've followed your posts through the WPG, Aero and now your Holy grail jacket. Good on you mate! it looks like you've reached your goal. All I've got to do now is find out what happened to Duggie Clifts jacket and get that one!!.......Yeah fat chance. You enjoy it though Spitfire.

Dave.

 

[aswatland]

Hi,

Yes I've tried that and no go. Lovely Jacket Andrew, and yes that's the pic of Duggie I was on about.

Andrew, I now have an early Eastman identical to yours on page 112 and I find it a lot softer than my broken grain ones. The main gripe I have with the broken grain Eastmans is that the fleece around the cuffs wears out VERY quickly even though I'm very careful when wearing it. I wonder if the earlier Eastman will wear better being softer?

Cheers,
Dave.

Thanks Dave. The fleece on the later broken grain jackets does seem to wear more quickly than on the much older versions. The fleece is certainly softer and longer on my early ELC jacket, which helps.

 

[Smithy]

Hi,

Yes I've tried that and no go. Lovely Jacket Andrew, and yes that's the pic of Duggie I was on about.

Andrew, I now have an early Eastman identical to yours on page 112 and I find it a lot softer than my broken grain ones. The main gripe I have with the broken grain Eastmans is that the fleece around the cuffs wears out VERY quickly even though I'm very careful when wearing it. I wonder if the earlier Eastman will wear better being softer?

Cheers,
Dave.

Hi Dave,

I have a 7 year old ELC BoB Pattern and it has some cuff wear and thinning but TBH it hasn't worn unduly. I wore the hell out of it for the first year or two and didn't baby it at all, in fact it was probably treated fairly badly! It was slept in, used as a blanket, worn whilst tobogganing, stood on, stuffed in a box when we shifted country.

I haven't handled nearly as many originals as Andrew but many of the ones I have often have some cuff wear and thinning in this area. Apart from maybe some differences in fleece batches, I tend to think that some factors which affect this are: sleeve length (this seems to be a factor in rubbing if you often have your hands in your pockets, over time the constant putting in and taking out I think can exacerbate wear here); also whether the jacket is worn with the sleeves zipped fully closed or half closed. At the cuff where the sleeve is folded will always be the weakest point for the fleece and with hands and wrist movements it will get worn. So long as it's not bald after only a few months of wear it wouldn't worry me too much but I'm one of those that likes a repro to wear and get a few "battle scars", makes it look much more like an original.

Cheers and hope you can find a way to post a few pics,

Tim

 

[hippomaintenance]

Thanks for the info on the cuffs Tim. I do now have the cuff zips undone about 4" where as when I first got the jacket I wore it with zips closed.

Andrew, Thanks for your input about the early elc, I too prefer it to the later version.

Dave.

 

[Spitfire]

Just a little atmosphere. Let's call it Happy Landings.

 

[Bobajobbob]

Very interesting thread. I'm looking for an Invin type jacket and until i started digging I had no idea how hard it would be to find a good one. I'm not too concerned with absolute authenticity but I am concerned with the right aesthetics (for me) which means chesnut coloured leather rather than the darker sealskin option. Fleece colour also needs to be more golden rather than white or ginger. Having looked at the myriad of options available I'm also leanigt towards he pre war designs with single panels of leather. Both the aero and Aces High jackets look fabulous whereas the Aviation Leathercraft jackets seem to be much too dark with fluffy ginger wool which just isn't a great look (or the photos are bad). The downside of the Aero and Aces High jackets is that they are made to internet order and quite expensive which makes me a little uncomfortable as I won't be able to try on any jacket before spending the money.

Can anyone in England recomend a retailer where I can actually walk in and try on some jackets to get an idea of the size and shape of these jackets? I normally where a 42 regular suit but have learnt from experience that when buying leather jackets this has very little bearing.

thks

 

[Sloan1874]

Edward posted a while back that John Simons, on Chiltern Street in London was stocking Aero, but I'm not sure if that's the case.
As far as their new Irvin design goes, I would recommend going up one size on your suit to get a good looking fit - obviously you can email Holly to ask for alterations on cuffs, but I've found the longer arm a boon for the cold weather, it's like having a pair of fingerless mittens attached to the jacket.

Here's my one: http://www.thefedoralounge.com/show...Aero-Multi-Panel-Irvin-(pic-heavy)&highlight=

 

[Otter]

Hmmm, Aero are in the Borders, bit of a trek for you but might be worth it, they are very welcoming. Johnny (aces) is in France, I see you are in London, why not make a weekend of it and visit to get measured? The otheer option is to go to a bespoke tailor and pay to have him measure you properly and send off those measurements.
I used to have one of the older ALC Irvins it was darker brown on the skin colour, but IIRC they did do a lighter finish, the fleece itself was a golden brown colour. My most recent was a ca 4 yo Aero mid war pattern, very soft skin, nice and pliable and thick thick fleece. Probably not 100% accurate but it did for me, they do come up on the 'bay regularly.

 

[Bobajobbob]

Edward posted a while back that John Simons, on Chiltern Street in London was stocking Aero, but I'm not sure if that's the case.
As far as their new Irvin design goes, I would recommend going up one size on your suit to get a good looking fit - obviously you can email Holly to ask for alterations on cuffs, but I've found the longer arm a boon for the cold weather, it's like having a pair of fingerless mittens attached to the jacket.

Here's my one: http://www.thefedoralounge.com/show...Aero-Multi-Panel-Irvin-(pic-heavy)&highlight=

That is pretty awesome. I prefer a simple look with single panels but the leather and cut of that jacket is pretty fantastic.

 

[Sloan1874]

Absolutely, it's horses for courses when it comes to design. It was a complete life-saver when I was in Chicago in December and it looks even better now that it's had a bit of wear, as it's got some creases and taken a lovely texture.

Aero are in the Borders, bit of a trek for you but might be worth it, they are very welcoming. Johnny (aces) is in France, I see you are in London, why not make a weekend of it and visit to get measured? The otheer option is to go to a bespoke tailor and pay to have him measure you properly and send off those measurements.

These are all pretty painless options: France, The Borders or down to a tailor. Mind you, where in France is Ace's High based?