Highwayman Virginian

[red devil]

This might really be a chance for me to step up and put my money where my mouth is. I remember protesting stridently when @handymike cut the fringe off his Bates racer. Now maybe it’s my turn to except the fringe challenge!

If you're going to go for it, go for something worth it

I don’t like it much either, but I am somewhat surprised about the strong reactions here. This place has taught me to be much more experimental with my jackets than I would ever have imagined.

I can easily see quite a few of TFL veterans rocking this baby and looking really cool in it.
I bet it looks much mor agreeable in say natural HH or even rust suede.

Well that's the thing, this design doesn't show any creativity...

This woman's jacket is unique and cool

 

[Edward]

Aero posted their new Highwayman Virginian on their Instagram feed earlier. It's their 59er jacket, but with a fringe, based on the original Rivetts Highwayman Virginian.

So who is getting one?

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If I was going to go back to doing my Dr Frank'n'Furter regularly enough to want a screen accurate jacket, this might be a starting point for discussion with Aero. Tim Curry's original Frank jacket - which was his own, street-wear jacket, believed to have been bought from an old rocker at the turn of the seventies. That would require a bit of tweaking of course; Curry's had fringing on the sleeve only. It is often believed to have been a Lewis Plainsman, but it could as easily have been a Highwayman, the designs were very similar at that point. Fringing isn't something I'd wear other than as Frank, though I tend to find these shorter, "British" versions less aesthetically lacking.

Honestly, how many versions of the same jacket are they going to produce? Their energy would be better used by offering different cuts, designs, and collars IMO. They’ve milked the Highwayman for all it’s got at this point.

Doesn't surprise me they'd do variations on the Highwayman theme; nearly forty years on from its inception, the standard Highwayman is still Aero's biggest seller by quite some margin. It makes commercial sense in that regard.

I think fringe is hopelessly dated, and I hope it never comes back into style. It's fine for colonial frontiers men and hippies. Not my thing.

My association with long and Western-style fringes has always been hair metal... I mean, if anything immediately screams Axl Rose, that's evidence of a style crime no court could refuse.

Aero should change the pocket angles and add fringe to the sleeves to make it more like the older ones if they’re pushing forward with this design. I have to admit- the best part of a fringe jacket is swinging your arms around and feeling/hearing the fringe flap. The snap cuffs are also better than the zippers IMO, unless it is a CR design. Now, if they wanted to do a Board racer in Western style- I have pictures.
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The modern Lewis version misses the target too.

Thing is, that's not the target. These are reproducing a very British style from the later 50s that continued into the Sixties and was popular among the Sixties rocker / Ace Cafe type scene.

Nothing against fringe, it's a well established look, no better or worse than any other we discuss here (tho not my thing for sure) but as @Kalmer already pointed out, why copying LL's jacket to such an extreme?

I wouldn't be so quick to brand it a Lewis copy. I don't know who added fringing first, but the jacket which inspired the standard Highwayman - and is reproduced directly in the Original 59er version - was being made by Rivett's of Leytonstone under their Highwayman brand by 1959 at the latest (quite possibly in production from 57/58). Lewis' Dominator and Corsair styles are much better known now (largely because the brand is still going; at some point, Lewis bought over Rivetts, but they didn't keep the Highwayman brand alive). Lewis didn't start producing that straight zip, shirt-collar style that became the quintessential Rocker jacket until 1962; they lifted the design from Rivetts directly long before the two were no longer competitors. (Fairly standard in the industry back then - after it proved a hit in 1958, pretty much every British motorcycle leather company had a go at producing their version of the Lewis Lightning, the "British Perfecto"). I've handled many of these jacket from both brands in that period which are identical in appearance despite different factories, but I've yet to be able to identify who put the fringing on first. That slightly thicker, shorter fringing was pretty typical on the British jackets in the period; the longer, thinner one was a more American style that didn't really arrive in the UK much til the 70s/80s.

However, as for complaining about Aero's styles and whether they should change something... That's pretty much like saying that Schott should stop milking the Perfecto or that GW or Himel should start mass producing jackets in China.
What Aero does is their thing - their look, style, vibe, whatever. Bad or good, it is what it is and it's obviously working so... It's okay not to like it, plenty of other makers around.

IT's easy to forget in enthusiast circles, but ultimately they *are* a business, and they will make what sells (within reason of what they are happy with bearing their name). The Highwayman in its original form remains far and away their biggest seller after several decades, so it would seem logical to offer more variants. The other thing that comes into play is that Ken's direction for the company since 2012 has been to do much less customisation, but offer more standard-pattern variants as an alternative. If they've had a few people request the fringe, I can see this making sense. They certainly could have done something much more different, much more American 1930s, or whatever, but the likelihood is that there's more of a market, particularly, in the UK, for this sort of thing.

 

[El Marro]

If you're going to go for it, go for something worth it

That’s a good point. As others have mentioned the fringe on this jacket is too wide and just looks tacky. I have always liked the look of a fringe jacket but not enough to buy one (at least not yet).
If I did go down this road I would probably look for something in deerskin since that is what I really associate with the style and I think the drape of the leather would look much better as well.

Ok, maybe not this deerskin jacket, but something a little more low-key in black or dark brown.

 

[cloudylemonade]

This is just me speculating...
But for some reason we assume Aero introduces these 'new' models like this Virginian or the Everyman because they expect these jackets to sell.

I have worked in the high end fashion industry. In this industry, it was a very common practice for fashion brands to include a couple of stand-out pieces in their collection which they knew wouldn't sell. Simply because the pieces were too much out there. They knew their regular customer base probably wouldn't buy them. But they used those pieces to attract attention to their overall collection. To complete the look, to tell a story, to make the overall collection look more interesting and to be featured in fashion magazines. Those stand-out pieces weren't expected to generate profits. The basic bread and butter pieces delivered the profits.

Maybe this jacket is just that. This is what people talk about. It keeps Aero interesting as a brand. In the end people will buy the Highwayman or the A-2 or what have you.

I'd say you've got this spot on, my father LOVES to tell a story and felt this version was the missing link in the chain of where we are with the Highwayman. I understand this, although a member of the Highwayman family, something very different for us at Aero. I'll be honest, when I saw it I was quite surprised myself, not something I ever would have imagined us producing.

To fill you in on the history of the Highwayman, which as someone pointed out, nearly 40 years on is still our best selling style so to be celebrated we feel.

• In 1983 we designed our classic Highwayman, which kick started the whole repro leather scene.
• In 2015 we made a replica of the jacket which gave us the original inspiration, our '59'er' which is a stitch for stitch copy of a 1950s jacket made by Rivetts using an original pattern.
• In 2016 we introduced the 1930s Premier Highwayman, a significantly slimmer version of our original 1983 design for those who were looking for a more fitted cut than the 1950s inspired design. I often had, and still do have people looking for a slim fit from this style, but sizing down never truly achieves this, so the Premier Highwayman has really filled that gap and has become a strong seller for us.
• Last week, the introduction of the second Rivetts repro was introduced, this is another stitch for stitch copy of their Virginia style, with the exact same short and wide fringe featured on their original 1950s design, so long predating the popular 1960/70s western styles some folk have posted (which personally, I love but are not Aero). This is really a faithful, 'warts and all' reproduction, not a redesign.

When you consider how many takes there are on A-2s and various military jackets, we don't feel we're not rehashing the same design, only offering something with different nuances and details that are there to appeal to different customers. This is something appreciated by the military market, so why not?

We don't make a jacket only in the hope it'll become a new best seller (though obviously this is celebrated when it happens), we'll make a jacket because we respect the history of the design, we feel its important to show or we just love it and hope some people agree. We don't carry stock, so it's not TOO big an investment for us to honour a design with production even if it doesn't sell tons.

 

[Monitor]

Y'know, look at it this way - this jacket opens up a whole new world of possibilities for anyone who genuinely likes fringe. I've lost count how many times have I seen something on some random Aero jacket that popped up on their sales page, that I was absolutely convinced they wouldn't even consider doing; like the stripes, the lettering, etc. and immediately began planning. Little things they never even advertised they'd do.
Same for fringe and if what @cloudylemonade and @Edward say is true, and no reason suspect otherwise, then the fringed HWM is something that's more than welcomed in the HWM family. Working on your flagship design isn't milking it.

I wouldn't be so quick to brand it a Lewis copy. I don't know who added fringing first, but the jacket which inspired the standard Highwayman - and is reproduced directly in the Original 59er version - was being made by Rivett's of Leytonstone under their Highwayman brand by 1959 at the latest (quite possibly in production from 57/58).

Perhaps I labeled it as a copy too hastily but what I meant is that, it's awfully close to the specific style LL's been doing already for years. I personally don't feel there'd be enough demand for both and I wouldn't want my jacket to clash with what is an already well established take on this style, regardless who came up first with it. Rivets, Mascot, etc. are all long gone and pretty soon, nobody will even remember they existed. For all intents and purposes, it's a Lewis Leathers jacket and one that's relatively distinct, for that matter.
All I'm saying, I wouldn't want anyone to say "oH tHeY cOpIeD lL!!".