Five Star Leather Jackets

[Marc mndt]

I don’t think that’s the case. That would/could happen with a reproduction company that takes things to the extreme (there are some Levi’s repro companies that purposefully imitate the wonky stitching etc of war time production).

Funny, I once bought these LVC 501 new from the Levi's webshop. Once delivered I noticed the left leg was twisted. Therefore I sent them back and ordered a new pair. Exact same thing: huge twist of the left leg (selvedge in front)

When I contacted levis, they told me the leg twist was deliberate. Because they were produced to resemble 501 from the 40s, which often had twisted legs (because build quality was poor)

 

[Seb Lucas]

Good example. Yes, with period 'reproductions' we tend to privilege the things we like, the things we imagine to be present and we pass over the things we don't like.

 

[Monitor]

Funny, I once bought these LVC 501 new from the Levi's webshop. Once delivered I noticed the left leg was twisted. Therefore I sent them back and ordered a new pair. Exact same thing: huge twist of the left leg (selvedge in front) View attachment 290365
When I contacted levis, they told me the leg twist was deliberate. Because they were produced to resemble 501 from the 40s, which often had twisted legs (because build quality was poor)

Huh! I had that on quite a few of my Levi's jeans that I thrifted and while I'd ignore it, the consistency of such a thing happening did strike me as odd and I even attributed it to something that cannot be avoided. And now I learn I probably had good repros. XD

 

[Mich486]

That’s because when washing unsanforized denim the cotton shrinks and causes the leg twisting. It happens with most unsanforised denim. What I meant was more reproduction companies a la CSF. They do use rusting metal buttons and asymmetric stitching just to emulate the imperfections of Levi’s of the golden era. I don’t care that much personally but there are people who enjoy these things.

Jeans aside I guess we all agree this is not the kind of reason why we see that misaligned front panel on the Aero’s posted earlier by @Marc mndt.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I switched from Levi jeans a few years ago when I tried on some JC Penny 'Arizona' jeans that I noticed were of good quality, durable, and fit into the Levi price range compared to many others that soared into the twilight zone of pricing for a more heavy duty fetish. None of my Penney's jeans have twisted pant legs. I prefer them that way. I don't have to shrink them to fit and don't miss the fun of messing with that routine. I tried Wrangler jeans once but the fit was puckered and awful on my frame. So I found my home with certain jeans and even found my Happy with a certain brand of leather jacket after a long search. Happy is nice. Contentment is nicer.
HD

 

[CRP]

Here are close up pictures that highlight the construction

As you might have noticed here, they used a different thinner thread here. When I asked about it, was told that it was not possible to have the thicker thread everywhere. Anybody can shed some light into this?

Quite a few mishaps but nothing major. The puzzling aspects being that the machinist seems to have had a lot of trouble with the back left seam.

Considering the complexity of this jacket, I think it turned out fantastic. Even more credit goes to 'red devil' for being so ambitious and pushing the envelope with 5*. A local tailor should be able to tighten up the fit for you. I had a tailor taper my 5* Cafe Racer by 2 inches in the waist and 1 inch in the hem. The design of your jacket is much more complicated and truly unique, so your efforts will benefit all TFL members who want this jacket now with a base pattern established. I doubt Shawn will put this on the 5* website - its just too complicated, so probably special TFL orders only. Its wild that we can even get this done. Lovin it!

 

[CRP]

I like how if an Aero has poor patterns, poor stitching and poor panel alignement they are "period accurate features", but if another maker has the same "features" they are issues....

Interesting and noticed this selective criticism in other areas (boots...) as well. Hard to be objective when people get passionate. I really appreciate it when the experienced members (ton312, MrProper...) give their opinion, since they seem to have run the gauntlet with so many leather makers. Five Star (custom sizing/value) and Johnson Leathers (custom sizing/leather variety) are both on my radar due to this forum and its pissing my wife off. But a man has got to have hobbies, so leather jackets aren't so bad.

 

[red devil]

When you're wearing the jacket the sun on the right shoulder is less visible compared to the original

Have you had bigger/smaller people wear the jacket? It could help you see which panels are too big/small

Did you make drawings to scale for this jacket?

Good idea, I need to see this jacket on different body types. I gave them many measurements, it was my most detailed order in terms of specs. Still not enough, but a good learning experience.

I still say it looks really good. I’ve had far worse stitching boo boo’s on FAR more expensive jackets. Far worse.
For a first at bat on what is arguably one of the toughest and most intricate jackets maybe anywhere on the market...it’s good. Projects like this should only improve their abilities and range.

That's why I called them mishaps, no big mistake that would warrant asking them to remake a panel or something of the sort. The idea in choosing this jacket was to see what they can do.

I feel the flaws are extremely minor . You should wear the jacket in good health . It’s an amazing jacket, tres cool

Merci, the stitching flaws are minor, the fit issues more obvious to our eyes here. I will wear it, that's the best way to figure out how to improve it in any case

I'm late to the East West Unveil party..... but I echo much of what has been said. Frankly, I give you MAX credit for the cajones to endeavor to recreate such a complicated design. I think it turned out great design wise with the stitching, the sorta scallop collar the Sun back etc. The front looks bitchen as well. Those buckled pockets came out nice and I like that you went with contrast stitching.

As with all of us (except the Design Savants like Ton, Mr. Proper and a few others) I think its hard to nail the fit details to perfection without totally copying a jacket you have on hand. ESPECIALLY on your first time. I think this was a rather ambitious build though style wise as almost ALL of the East West designs are so off the charts detailed and artsy. With all the challenges at hand with this jacket, I think it turned out great.

Fit could be better mainly in the back but I feel like that is just a learning experience and it seems you likely had so many other irons in the fire as to details you wanted to nail with this design that you were bound to overlook a detail or two on fit.

Honestly, its sorta like Olympic diving----with the "LEVEL OF DIFFUCULTY" and this should factor into how you judge this jacket. In diving, you can choose to do a very basic, "safe" dive and you can NAIL it 100% but you may get a lower score than another diver who tries something wayyyy more difficult but only gets 85% of it right. The level of difficulty for this build was very high indeed. A LOT of details and irregularly shaped panels on this jacket. NOTE: I have never dove in my life as am really more prone to Cannonballs but I HAVE seen the Olympics on TEE-VEE and hence, I am narrowly qualified to offer this loose Olympic comparison

You deserve credit for even attempting this design but it really turned out nice. I think it'll get even better once its broken it. Congrats!!

I like your parallel to diving

Stitching looks real solid to my eyes. A couple of small imperfections here and there - as has been already pointed out, far more expensive jackets have come out of QC with far worse stitching. The big issue with this jacket is the fit. Are you going for a remake to try and remedy this?

I need to spend some time with this jacket, compare it with others and see if I am up for a remake. I was already given some good ideas on how to deal with the back, but need to figure out how I could get them to improve the sleeves.

I bought two Aero's from their sales page, sent them both back because of stitching issues and panels not lining up. View attachment 290358
View attachment 290359

Edit: I included the 5* photo to show how well the panels line up. More impressive considering the number of panels.

This shows it pretty clearly! I have looked a few times at Aero but never ended up ordered anything from them.

Very period accurate -about 50% of my period jackets have had panels that don't line up like that. Not saying I'd want that in a carefully made $1000 jacket, but it is a thing.

Interestingly Aero base prices seem to be at the $1000 mark now, the base price of a Hooch Hauler for example is £740, just checked. Same as you, I wouldn't be happy to pay such a price and have this issue.

It was difficult to get a feel as to where Five Star stands, I pondered for a while whether to place an order or not. Then thought that this jacket was a good way to gauge their abilities, hence why I mentionned it was mock up jacket really. Consequently, there were no expectations, nothing to get in the way of examining the end result objectively.

And, obviously I shared the results here to give a good sense to everybody about what Five star is and isn't capable of doing, and of course to read the views of all those who commented. Overall, repeating myself, it has been a good learning experience so far.

 

[red devil]

Considering the complexity of this jacket, I think it turned out fantastic. Even more credit goes to 'red devil' for being so ambitious and pushing the envelope with 5*. A local tailor should be able to tighten up the fit for you. I had a tailor taper my 5* Cafe Racer by 2 inches in the waist and 1 inch in the hem. The design of your jacket is much more complicated and truly unique, so your efforts will benefit all TFL members who want this jacket now with a base pattern established. I doubt Shawn will put this on the 5* website - its just too complicated, so probably special TFL orders only. Its wild that we can even get this done. Lovin it!

How did the alterations go for you? I wonder how feasible it is to adjust the waist on this one

 

[air]

A good middle ground between a mock up and measurments could be technical drawing.

 

[Marc mndt]

A good middle ground between a mock up and measurments could be technical drawing.

The above drawing doesn't show how individual panels work together to form a 3d shape (with curved lines instead of rectangulars)

 

[air]

The above drawing doesn't show how individual panels work together to form a 3d shape (with curved lines instead of rectangulars)

If the back was curved, then it would be visible in the side view and the top view. Like the picture below, it uses multiple views to completely define the part and how it fits together.

For example if you have a tube shaped object laying on the floor and you take a picture directly from the top it looks like a rectangle, if you take a picture from the side at ground level, it also looks like a rectangle. If you take it from the front, it looks like a circle. When you put the three together it becomes a tube.

 

[red devil]

Doing such drawings doesn't seem that accessible, how did you learn?

 

[Bahabp100]

Doing such drawings doesn't seem that accessible, how did you learn?

Oops you lost me there

 

[red devil]

Oops you lost me there

Just asking @air how he got to the level of drawing the examples he showed

 

[Hobbes1]

This morning, I received an email from Shawn that my newest jacket is done and ready to ship. What did I think of the pictures? To be honest, some pictures made me quite happy and a couple others not so much. One in particular may be a show stopper. Pictures of several other parts of the jacket were not included.
So, I have replied back to Shawn to ask for the missing areas to be photographed and if possible pictures with better lighting and better focus. Some were blurry and made me question whether the leather itself was grainy, in a not-so-good way. I'll post a couple pictures here.

The first is the new tag they have developed. I quite like it
Several other pictures were as out of focus as this one, making it hard to determine what I might receive.

This second image is the one that is potentially a deal breaker for me. I am very concerned about the folds or creases that seem prominent. May be a trick of the light or how the jacket is laid out. OR might be something else. I've also asked for pictures of the jacket being worn both zipped and unzipped.

So, we shall see. I had hoped to have the jacket before Christmas but that doesn't seem likely. I'd rather have a jacket that will meet my (hopefully reasonable) expectations, even if it takes longer. Fingers Crossed!

 

[Claybertrand]

This morning, I received an email from Shawn that my newest jacket is done and ready to ship. What did I think of the pictures? To be honest, some pictures made me quite happy and a couple others not so much. One in particular may be a show stopper. Pictures of several other parts of the jacket were not included.
So, I have replied back to Shawn to ask for the missing areas to be photographed and if possible pictures with better lighting and better focus. Some were blurry and made me question whether the leather itself was grainy, in a not-so-good way. I'll post a couple pictures here.

The first is the new tag they have developed. I quite like it
Several other pictures were as out of focus as this one, making it hard to determine what I might receive.

View attachment 290580

This second image is the one that is potentially a deal breaker for me. I am very concerned about the folds or creases that seem prominent. May be a trick of the light or how the jacket is laid out. OR might be something else. I've also asked for pictures of the jacket being worn both zipped and unzipped.
View attachment 290581


So, we shall see. I had hoped to have the jacket before Christmas but that doesn't seem likely. I'd rather have a jacket that will meet my (hopefully reasonable) expectations, even if it takes longer. Fingers Crossed!

I dig the improvements in the labeling and the fact you had a Chain Hanger riveted in. Were the labels done by them or were they requested??

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Why the riveted chain hanger? Will you actually hang it up by that?

 

[Hobbes1]

Yeah, the chain hanger seems like a cool addition that I have seen on other jackets. Hopefully, it will hold up over time just as well or better than leather hanger.
edit: Yes, I will at times use the hanger.

I had been talking to Shawn awhile back that the tag could benefit from some improvement and different verbiage. To me, "genuine leather" doesn't really mean anything and it's the kind of label that I've seen in Chinese mass production. Nothing wrong with that but if these are essentially Custom Made jackets, I always felt the labeling should stand out a bit more. This is what they came up with recently. I might have chosen "goat hide" rather than "goat skin" but that's just me.

 

[Marc mndt]

This morning, I received an email from Shawn that my newest jacket is done and ready to ship. What did I think of the pictures? To be honest, some pictures made me quite happy and a couple others not so much. One in particular may be a show stopper. Pictures of several other parts of the jacket were not included.
So, I have replied back to Shawn to ask for the missing areas to be photographed and if possible pictures with better lighting and better focus. Some were blurry and made me question whether the leather itself was grainy, in a not-so-good way. I'll post a couple pictures here.

The first is the new tag they have developed. I quite like it
Several other pictures were as out of focus as this one, making it hard to determine what I might receive.

View attachment 290580

This second image is the one that is potentially a deal breaker for me. I am very concerned about the folds or creases that seem prominent. May be a trick of the light or how the jacket is laid out. OR might be something else. I've also asked for pictures of the jacket being worn both zipped and unzipped.
View attachment 290581


So, we shall see. I had hoped to have the jacket before Christmas but that doesn't seem likely. I'd rather have a jacket that will meet my (hopefully reasonable) expectations, even if it takes longer. Fingers Crossed!

The new label instantly makes the jacket look $200 more expensive.