George Brent "Missabe" Jacket

[fishmeok]

This is a design I made with the help and research of a forum member. It's based on a jacket actor George Brent wore in a couple of his movies in the late 30's.

The jacket is a varation on the classic 1930's flight jacket/A-1 with a leather collar, small button pockets, collar tab, windflap, and one of the most unique D pockets I have yet seen. Please see the blog post below for more details.

http://superiorjackets.com/?p=851

Cheers
Mark

 

[HDRnR]

Nice work Mark, very unique pocket indeed.

 

[Fletch]

What's the eeensy one for? Smokes? Scoring pencils? Loose change?

 

[Metatron]

Looks very faithful to the original! What an admirable effort, to bring these classic designs back to their former glory like this! I'm a fan.

Do you have an opinion on why it was common practice at the time to not include handwarmer pockets on leather jackets?

 

[fishmeok]

Probably a watch or some sort of tobacco- maybe one of those complementary mini-packs of Camels they used to give out on the airlines...

Good for a cell phone nowadays

Cheers
Mark

 

[Fletch]

Yeah, I was thinking cel, but mine will barely fit in my ELC A-1 pockets and they're quite a bit bigger!

 

[fishmeok]

But Paul- I thought thin was in, cell phone wise...

i-phone pocket extra!!!!

Cheers
Mark

 

[Seb Lucas]

I understand that jackets didn't have hand slits because it was considered slothful if not rude to put your hands in your pocket - especially for military types. These jackets were appealing to that demographic.

 

[bolly]

very good design,but a big pocket and a smaller pocket,why?

 

[Metatron]

This jacket is a good example of how asymmetrical design is often aesthetically very pleasing. It's a feature often overlooked in modern designs.

edit: bolly, the large pocket is balanced out by the combination of D pocket and smaller pocket, at least that's how I interpret it.

 

[fishmeok]

If you look at the pics of the original jacket on my blog, you can see that BOTH the button pockets were oiginally tiny- I made one about A-2 pocket size so it would be functional- plus I like the way it offsets the other pocket.

Why they would both be so tiny I have no clue, not every idea from the Golden Era panned out in retrospect...
Cheers
Mark

 

[fishmeok]

Couple of pics after a little breaking in...

 

[bjoy]

What's the eeensy one for? Smokes? Scoring pencils? Loose change?

Jacket "C" in this 1942 catalog has one of these tiny pockets (though zippered). According to the description the zippered pockets are one for maps and the other for change.

Note the zippered pocket on jacket "E" is for cigarettes. And on jacket "B" the zippered pocket is a humidor for tobacco.

I guess smokers never have any loose change or use maps, or else they have different priorities.