How many new jackets do you have coming (and how many potential ones)?

[ton312]

Everyone keeps forgetting that it is an 80s pattern marketed as a 50s pattern. Once you accept it for what it is, it looks the part. Well done!

The HWM woes could easily be rectified with a slight change to the back seam. It should be done like my excelled, and they could easily ditch the faux Halfbelt that the excelled has.
Comparing the HWM back seam construction at the side panel (this jacket fits nothing like a Halfbelt):

Aero’s straight diagonal:

Doing this would alleviate the balloon appearance some HWM jackets end up with. I don’t see this in @Mich486 example but his is the exception, not the rule

 

[Mich486]

Dav has competition now...

Great jacket great fit!

Thanks but I will never be able to reach that level of greatness. I’m a soft handed office worker, hanging out at the playground over the weekend

Everyone keeps forgetting that it is an 80s pattern marketed as a 50s pattern. Once you accept it for what it is, it looks the part. Well done!

You are so right. It’s also I think less “unique” than what I think they make it out to be. I mean it’s a pretty generic design. But they have been around for 40s years now and kept it as a flagship model pretty much unchanged so now it’s their thing. Persistence pays out.

The HWM woes could easily be rectified with a slight change to the back seam. It should be done like my excelled, and they could easily ditch the faux Halfbelt that the excelled has.
Comparing the HWM back seam construction at the side panel (this jacket fits nothing like a Halfbelt):
View attachment 423935 View attachment 423936
View attachment 423925
Aero’s straight diagonal:
View attachment 423940
View attachment 423926

Doing this would alleviate the balloon appearance some HWM jackets end up with. I don’t see this in @Mich486 example but his is the exception, not the rule

Yes I can’t put together a concrete solution to the armpit problem (you are probably laying out the solution) but there is room for improvement.

However, I shall not let that dissuade me for holding on to this jacket (repeated x3)! As liver king says, don’t let perfection be the enemy of good!

(If you don’t know who liver king is, look him up on IG, it sure will entertain you for a bit!)

 

[ton312]

Thanks but I will never be able to reach that level of greatness. I’m a soft handed office worker, hanging out at the playground over the weekend

You are so right. It’s also I think less “unique” than what I think they make it out to be. I mean it’s a pretty generic design. But they have been around for 40s years now and kept it as a flagship model pretty much unchanged so now it’s their thing. Persistence pays out.

Yes I can’t put together a concrete solution to the armpit problem (you are probably laying out the solution) but there is room for improvement.

However, I shall not let that dissuade me for holding on to this jacket (repeated x3)! As liver king says, don’t let perfection be the enemy of good!

(If you don’t know who liver king is, look him up on IG, it sure will entertain you for a bit!)

I don’t think you need to improve anything. I just think that, in general, a slight curvature to the back seam will defeat many of the HWM woes we read about (and those I had). Yours looks ideal. A keeper for sure.

 

[tmitchell59]

After getting my red/black plaid HB back from Dena, I immediately ammended my Aero order. Now green/back with dark green Kelpie, Denny and Ken are on board with the tweaks. Mine will have leather standard HWM cuff with storms:
View attachment 422798

I prefer the green in this jacket, nice choice.

 

[ton312]

I prefer the green in this jacket, nice choice.

Me too! Everything is with Aero. I won’t wear it this year but hopefully I can bask in the a/c with this green machine before June. It’s occurred to me that I vastly prefer wool halfbelts to leather. Love them both. But the wool just wins.

 

[navetsea]

Happy with this. Needed a brown leather jacket, didn’t want to spend a fortune and this came up on the trainee section with the right sleeves and back length. Aero HWM in tumbled brown CXLHH.

Forgot how heavy leather felt, glad I sized up one from my previous HWM. I think this is the heaviest CXL HH I’ve handled. I got to the conclusion that the “size down 2 on HWM” advice is just as misleading as an advice can be. Maybe if you are in between sizes take the smallest but that’s it. Don’t look at the p2p, it’s got very low armholes. No weird vertical creases so far.

View attachment 423810

Great color and looks roomy easy wearing, congrats

 

[JMax]

Another Vanson Force Perforated. Best riding jacket I have owned. Gearing up for the summer.

 

[Imuricecreamman]

Happy with this. Needed a brown leather jacket, didn’t want to spend a fortune and this came up on the trainee section with the right sleeves and back length. Aero HWM in tumbled brown CXLHH.

Forgot how heavy leather felt, glad I sized up one from my previous HWM. I think this is the heaviest CXL HH I’ve handled. I got to the conclusion that the “size down 2 on HWM” advice is just as misleading as an advice can be. Maybe if you are in between sizes take the smallest but that’s it. Don’t look at the p2p, it’s got very low armholes. No weird vertical creases so far.

View attachment 423810

Perfect fit for what I like!

 

[Mister Rivets]

Thedi Via Thruston Bros

 

[Mister Rivets]

Thedi Titan. I love this design

 

[Guppy]

Just snagged this one from vintage/thrift seller Northern Grip. Their description doesn't have a lot of info, and says it's 80s vintage, but I question that -- the label inside looks more like something you'd see in the 60s or 50s, to me, and the leather looks nicer than what you'd see in a typical 80s jacket. The price was right for me to take a chance on it. Does anybody know anything about Chipie Products? Zipper slide is left-side, and it's coming from Europe, so I assume it's a european maker.

 

[Monitor]

Just snagged this one from vintage/thrift seller Northern Grip. Their description doesn't have a lot of info, and says it's 80s vintage, but I question that -- the label inside looks more like something you'd see in the 60s or 50s, to me, and the leather looks nicer than what you'd see in a typical 80s jacket. The price was right for me to take a chance on it. Does anybody know anything about Chipie Products? Zipper slide is left-side, and it's coming from Europe, so I assume it's a european maker.

I love this jacket but it indeed is late 1980's or early 90's piece, produced in France. I think it's a very high quality jacket and it's been made during the initial Americana craze (back when Lee Trevor started) but yeah. In any case, I've been looking at it for a long while but ultimately decided I would rarely wear it.

Northern Grip is notoriously clueless at identifying leather jackets. I've so far seen two true 50's USA made jackets pass thru their hands for pocket change, both advertised as "90's leather jacket".

 

[Guppy]

I love this jacket but it indeed is late 1980's or early 90's piece, produced in France. I think it's a very high quality jacket and it's been made during the initial Americana craze (back when Lee Trevor started) but yeah. In any case, I've been looking at it for a long while but ultimately decided I would rarely wear it.

Northern Grip is notoriously clueless at identifying leather jackets. I've so far seen two true 50's USA made jackets pass thru their hands for pocket change, both advertised as "90's leather jacket".

Thanks for the info. I had a feeling you might have some knowledge about it.

Northern Grip's website has really high resolution images, and I took advantage to zoom way, way in. The grain on the leather looks phenomenal up close, as good as what I have seen on Aero, Langlitz, and Vanson, but I don't think it's that thick.

I even tried to make out the printing on the label and maybe was able to read it, I think it says

"A Chipie Product/
Smarter(?) _________ Leather Wear /
Since 1967"

I'll just have to be patient and see what it says in person. I wonder if Chipie is a reference to Chippewa, which is an Indian tribe that lived in the Midwest and gave their name to several grog regions. I also wonder if the information on manufacturer's tags are just part of the branding and not really accurate information.

And it's really hard to tell for sure, but I think the main zipper pull looks like a YKK. Which makes 80s more likely.

In any case, Northern Grip does occasionally have a real find at a very good price. I hate letting that be known because you just know it's going to get scoured now. Or they'll raise prices. Or go out of business.

 

[Bfd70]

Another IH N1. This one in tan. So easy to wear and quite warm.

 

[barnabus]

Thanks for the info. I had a feeling you might have some knowledge about it.

Northern Grip's website has really high resolution images, and I took advantage to zoom way, way in. The grain on the leather looks phenomenal up close, as good as what I have seen on Aero, Langlitz, and Vanson, but I don't think it's that thick.

I even tried to make out the printing on the label and maybe was able to read it, I think it says

"A Chipie Product/
Smarter(?) _________ Leather Wear /
Since 1967"

I'll just have to be patient and see what it says in person. I wonder if Chipie is a reference to Chippewa, which is an Indian tribe that lived in the Midwest and gave their name to several grog regions. I also wonder if the information on manufacturer's tags are just part of the branding and not really accurate information.

And it's really hard to tell for sure, but I think the main zipper pull looks like a YKK. Which makes 80s more likely.

In any case, Northern Grip does occasionally have a real find at a very good price. I hate letting that be known because you just know it's going to get scoured now. Or they'll raise prices. Or go out of business.

Chipie was (is?) a Euro fashion brand that was big in the 80s/90s iirc.

 

[Monitor]

Thanks for the info. I had a feeling you might have some knowledge about it.

Northern Grip's website has really high resolution images, and I took advantage to zoom way, way in. The grain on the leather looks phenomenal up close, as good as what I have seen on Aero, Langlitz, and Vanson, but I don't think it's that thick.

I even tried to make out the printing on the label and maybe was able to read it, I think it says

"A Chipie Product/
Smarter(?) _________ Leather Wear /
Since 1967"

I'll just have to be patient and see what it says in person. I wonder if Chipie is a reference to Chippewa, which is an Indian tribe that lived in the Midwest and gave their name to several grog regions. I also wonder if the information on manufacturer's tags are just part of the branding and not really accurate information.

And it's really hard to tell for sure, but I think the main zipper pull looks like a YKK. Which makes 80s more likely.

In any case, Northern Grip does occasionally have a real find at a very good price. I hate letting that be known because you just know it's going to get scoured now. Or they'll raise prices. Or go out of business.

It'll be a good jacket, don't worry about it. Europe scarcely had bad leather up until the nineties but then some major shit hit the market. But these better makers all still used superior leather that was regularly heavier than the US stuff of the same era. You're good in any case but I'd love to see more of that jacket once it arrives!

 

[Guppy]

It'll be a good jacket, don't worry about it. Europe scarcely had bad leather up until the nineties but then some major shit hit the market. But these better makers all still used superior leather that was regularly heavier than the US stuff of the same era. You're good in any case but I'd love to see more of that jacket once it arrives!

Good to hear. You can just tell by the grain in the pictures when zoomed in all the way that this was not a low-quality affair. I'm planning on doing a photo shoot and put up a thread for it when it gets here. Hopefully sometime next week, I imagine, depending on customs. FedEx shipments usually pass through customs pretty quickly.

 

[El Marro]

Another IH N1. This one in tan. So easy to wear and quite warm.

Welcome to the tan IH N1 club! Definitely one of my favorites and it goes well with almost everything.

 

[Monitor]

For no particular reason whatsoever, I just wanna share some pics of what is currently my favorite wardrobe accessory ever, a wallet @JMax kindly proxied for me a while ago... It's a really nice wallet, leather is seriously out of this world and it fits all the crap I need to carry around. Thanks again, man!

Oh, and the background is an Excelled diagonal zip jacket.

 

[JMax]

For no particular reason whatsoever, I just wanna share some pics of what is currently my favorite wardrobe accessory ever, a wallet @JMax kindly proxied for me a while ago... It's a really nice wallet, leather is seriously out of this world and it fits all the crap I need to carry around. Thanks again, man!

Oh, and the background is an Excelled diagonal zip jacket.

My knowledge of wallets is limited, but my brother has some kind of Mushman’s HH wallet— and this is nicer. It’s much nicer than my Vanson wallet. I do have some experience with different hides, this hide is amazing.

Glad I could help.