Five Star Leather Jackets

[Rugby]

Has anyone else, besides @Unspecifiedtea, noticed any...shrinkage after being caught in the rain in a 5* HH jacket?

 

[Canuck Panda]

Shawn said he will make the same leather, but from cow instead of horse. That will be available in black and brown. I am curious.

It's not so much the 2mm leather animal type but the full action back pattern. I'm still hanging around to see if someone develop something like that with Shawn first...
Waiting to see HH's next jacket with Shawn first.

I’m thinking of doing the hot water treatment on the collar only and hopefully shrink the top layer to be the same as size as the bottom. If that doesn’t work then I’ll probably bring it to a tailor. They will most likely have to make the collar smaller overall but I can live with that.

It might be the backing he used on the underside that is puckering.
I've washed and dried my leathers many different ways. Heat will always shrink unexpectedly. But cold water is usually ok, shrinkage will max out at 0.25" to 0.5". 1" smaller in P2P is a lot. That's at least 2" or more around the circumference.
Does the jacket stretch back when you pull on it?
Anyways, sorry about what happened. Hope you find a good solution. One of the big attributes of horsehide is suppose to handle water better.

 

[Rugby]

It's not so much the 2mm leather animal type but the full action back pattern. I'm still hanging around to see if someone develop something like that with Shawn first...
Waiting to see HH's next jacket with Shawn first.


It might be the backing he used on the underside that is puckering.
I've washed and dried my leathers many different ways. Heat will always shrink unexpectedly. But cold water is usually ok, shrinkage will max out at 0.25" to 0.5". 1" smaller in P2P is a lot. That's at least 2" or more around the circumference.
Does the jacket stretch back when you pull on it?
Anyways, sorry about what happened. Hope you find a good solution. One of the big attributes of horsehide is suppose to handle water better.

But isn't true that one member of this forum had a jacket made by JL in the german HH, and it shrunk after it got wet?

 

[ton312]

DHL SUCKS!!! Sitting on my shipment until the delivery due date!!!
It’s been in Chicago since Sunday. Worst carrier. Ever.

 

[handymike]

DHL SUCKS!!! Sitting on my shipment until the delivery due date!!!
It’s been in Chicago since Sunday. Worst carrier. Ever.

Boooo!

 

[Unspecifiedtea]

It's not so much the 2mm leather animal type but the full action back pattern. I'm still hanging around to see if someone develop something like that with Shawn first...
Waiting to see HH's next jacket with Shawn first.


It might be the backing he used on the underside that is puckering.
I've washed and dried my leathers many different ways. Heat will always shrink unexpectedly. But cold water is usually ok, shrinkage will max out at 0.25" to 0.5". 1" smaller in P2P is a lot. That's at least 2" or more around the circumference.
Does the jacket stretch back when you pull on it?
Anyways, sorry about what happened. Hope you find a good solution. One of the big attributes of horsehide is suppose to handle water better.

I was quite surprised too. I've attached p2p measurements pictures of the factory pictures vs the jacket now. The jacket stretches a bit but not much. It's a tight but luckily I can still wear it and just need to get the collar fixed.

Btw, thank you @Canuck Panda I copied the design of your SB cossack to make this jacket. Andddd I'm currently in the making a jacket with JL that I might be drawing inspiration from your latest M200 jackets too

 

[ton312]

Boooo!

I was quite surprised too. I've attached p2p measurements pictures of the factory pictures vs the jacket now. The jacket stretches a bit but not much. It's a tight but luckily I can still wear it and just need to get the collar fixed.

Btw, thank you @Canuck Panda I copied the design of your SB cossack to make this jacket. Andddd I'm currently in the making a jacket with JL that I might be drawing inspiration from your latest M200 jackets too
View attachment 422791 View attachment 422792

That’s a great design! 21.5” on a 34”!?? LOL. That’s insane though.

 

[Canuck Panda]

@Unspecifiedtea
Never trust the QC pics 100%! Haha. It's part of the custom jacket business. The measuring methods has a tolerance of 0.5" to 1" depending whether the person is pulling/stretching, using hard tape vs soft tape, or is the garment fully flat or has been worn. Many things can affect the the results, but it's always within plus or minus 0.5" or less. If more then something is not right.

The collar looks like it is the glue/under layer puckering at the seams. As the thread owner once said, least resistant way first... I think pulling and tugging along that seam line can possibly fix the issue, and you will end up with a nice Aero August shaped collar. If that doesn't work then escalate to the next level. Good luck. Good button holes.

@Rugby
Yes, there were two Masaye jacket posted here that has mentioned the shrinking. Although one I know just went from straight hem to curve back hem/drop front hem, which could be more leather molding to the wearer's body. Even so, JL has offer to make a new one for that member. The other jacket I know very little about, the wearer didn't say much.

@Gr8Lakes
Your uneven sleeve leather thickness has been on my mind. I feel bad for posting about the leather and you had a lesser experience. It could be simply a QC issue where Shawn's cutter didn't bother to match thickness or they are at the end of that batch and was using up whatever leather available. Neither are good. I am sorry for your experience.

FWIW, I have expensive horsehide jackets that also has different thickness sleeves. You can see here that one sleeve crease like rolls and the other crease like sharp edges. The sharp edges creases is the thinner one (on the left). But the thickness wasn't half, maybe 1/3 less max. I would take it up with Shawn with any quality concerns. He can improve for the future and perhaps give you a better deal for the next one.

 

[ton312]

My 5 oz 5 Star arrived. A mixed bag. It’s not 5 oz HH, but I’d say it’s a solid 4oz and uniformly thick throughout. No thinner spots at all. That is great.

A couple things were missed/overlooked. I asked for no interior pockets and got one anyway. There is no label indicating what it’s made from. The chest pocket was set too high (I have asked on the previous two that the chest pocket be set 1” lower than standard) and this was pictured in my spec sheet as well. The sleeve cuff buttons are fairly horribly done. If they last 6 months it’ll be a miracle. That’s all on 5 Star.

For my part, I blew the sleeve spec fairly wildly. I had fears of repeating the CHL debacle. Went WAY too wide at the elbow. Not terrible and certainly fixable.

I do love the plain back. I think it looks great and the upgraded buckles are nice. Overall it just feels meh. Love the hide but the rest is rather perfunctory.
I’m also still getting those strange diagonal creases in the sleeves. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why.

 

[morrison2951]

Sorry that you're disappointed with the 5 Star man.

It does look good on you though.

 

[ton312]

Sorry that you're disappointed with the 5 Star man.

It does look good on you though.

Yeah it’s not so much I’m disappointed. Just kind of nothing. Not hot or cold. Lukewarm.

 

[handymike]

My 5 oz 5 Star arrived. A mixed bag. It’s not 5 oz HH, but I’d say it’s a solid 4oz and uniformly thick throughout. No thinner spots at all. That is great.

A couple things were missed/overlooked. I asked for no interior pockets and got one anyway. There is no label indicating what it’s made from. The chest pocket was set too high (I have asked on the previous two that the chest pocket be set 1” lower than standard) and this was pictured in my spec sheet as well. The sleeve cuff buttons are fairly horribly done. If they last 6 months it’ll be a miracle. That’s all on 5 Star.

For my part, I blew the sleeve spec fairly wildly. I had fears of repeating the CHL debacle. Went WAY too wide at the elbow. Not terrible and certainly fixable.

I do love the plain back. I think it looks great and the upgraded buckles are nice. Overall it just feels meh. Love the hide but the rest is rather perfunctory.
I’m also still getting those strange diagonal creases in the sleeves. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why.
View attachment 422894 View attachment 422895 View attachment 422896 View attachment 422897 View attachment 422898

I’m sorry to read this. You and @MrProper are the 5star Gurus, and to see a miss on this jacket really lowers my opinion of the brand in that they should really be working extra hard to get it right for their #1 Ambassador. 5 Star seems to act like a sit-com: every jacket starts at square one without any retained knowledge of your past (what 15-20?) jackets. By now Shawn should be telling you what measurements work for your jackets.

 

[ton312]

I’m sorry to read this. You and @MrProper are the 5star Gurus, and to see a miss on this jacket really lowers my opinion of the brand in that they should really be working extra hard to get it right for their #1 Ambassador. 5 Star seems to act like a sit-com: every jacket starts at square one without any retained knowledge of your past (what 15-20?) jackets.

Yeah that’s the feeling I have too. No doubt I blew it with the sleeves and I can fix that (at my expense) but there’s just no excuse for the missed details and lazy execution on the cuffs. I’ll retire on this one. Maybe fling to the bay.

 

[Marc mndt]

I’m also still getting those strange diagonal creases in the sleeves. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why.

You're holding your arms all wrong. You should hold them like the WWII re-enactors do over at VLJ. Pretend you are an aeroplane.

The issue is demonstrated in these photo's:

Then they compare 5* with Avirex.

 

[red devil]

Yeah it’s not so much I’m disappointed. Just kind of nothing. Not hot or cold. Lukewarm.

You can always ask for a remake, they did not follow your indications after all

 

[MrProper]

My 5 oz 5 Star arrived. A mixed bag. It’s not 5 oz HH, but I’d say it’s a solid 4oz and uniformly thick throughout. No thinner spots at all. That is great.

A couple things were missed/overlooked. I asked for no interior pockets and got one anyway. There is no label indicating what it’s made from. The chest pocket was set too high (I have asked on the previous two that the chest pocket be set 1” lower than standard) and this was pictured in my spec sheet as well. The sleeve cuff buttons are fairly horribly done. If they last 6 months it’ll be a miracle. That’s all on 5 Star.

For my part, I blew the sleeve spec fairly wildly. I had fears of repeating the CHL debacle. Went WAY too wide at the elbow. Not terrible and certainly fixable.

I do love the plain back. I think it looks great and the upgraded buckles are nice. Overall it just feels meh. Love the hide but the rest is rather perfunctory.
I’m also still getting those strange diagonal creases in the sleeves. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why.
View attachment 422894 View attachment 422895 View attachment 422896 View attachment 422897 View attachment 422898

Not bad, but you have better jackets. That with the breast pocket is very unsatisfactory. Exactly the same with me. I said just like my brown jacket, so also the pocket setup, and they placed the breast pocket too high. With my brown one, the collar is too wide, even though I had specified the size.
Nevertheless I am happy with my black one because it is really good otherwise.

The problem with 5* is that they have no discrete sense of quality or sense of proportion, designs, etc. They are contract manufacturers that sometimes screw things up as soon as self-contained interpretation is needed.
Also, I think there are strong differences in the skills of cutters and machinists. If you're lucky, a good one will make the jacket, if not, a unskilled worker.

Since this 2 mm leather is also no longer available and I am currently satisfied and have no idea for a new jacket, I will probably limit myself in the future to Shearlings of 5*, if other colors come.

 

[ton312]

Not bad, but you have better jackets. That with the breast pocket is very unsatisfactory. Exactly the same with me. I said just like my brown jacket, so also the pocket setup, and they placed the breast pocket too high. With my brown one, the collar is too wide, even though I had specified the size.
Nevertheless I am happy with my black one because it is really good otherwise.

The problem with 5* is that they have no discrete sense of quality or sense of proportion, designs, etc. They are contract manufacturers that sometimes screw things up as soon as self-contained interpretation is needed.
Also, I think there are strong differences in the skills of cutters and machinists. If you're lucky, a good one will make the jacket, if not, a unskilled worker.

Since this 2 mm leather is also no longer available and I am currently satisfied and have no idea for a new jacket, I will probably limit myself in the future to Shearlings of 5*, if other colors come.

Agreed 100%. I think a huge part of the problem or the cause of the problems, is that these jackets are made on assembly lines. There is no one single machinist seeing the jacket through from start to finish. This is also why, as @handymike pointed out, every jacket build starts from scratch, with zero inherited knowledge of what was done succesfully (or unsucessfully) before. When you pay a premium, you are in part, paying to avoid these novice errors.

Overall my jacket just feels rushed and slapped together. The chest pocket placement, lack of material tag, unwanted interior pocket plus the sloppy cuff buttons have left me feeling cold. While I don't feel it's a bad jacket at all, it's a far cry from what I thought it would be. The first jacket ever that I listed on ebay the day I recieved it. That says something, even for me, LOL.

 

[morrison2951]

Thedi, for one, shows in no uncertain terms who made your jacket. Me likey.

 

[Marc mndt]

Thedi, for one, shows in no uncertain terms who made your jacket. Me likey.

That's the name of the guy who ordered this custom jacket, the first owner. Not the guy who made it.

 

[ton312]

Thedi, for one, shows in no uncertain terms who made your jacket. Me likey.

This comparison is not valid tbh. That's a used jacket you bought second hand, not one custom made for you. Thedi certainly does not operate on an assembly line model, LOL. I would not put these two jackets in the same tier for comparisons sake. It's like comparing:
Thedi

to:
5 Star