IRVIN SEASON OPEN! (Time to get it out Gents)

[nick123]

I don't think you have to wear your jacket, ever, to necessarily enjoy it. Sometimes just staring at it with admiration, knowing you own a piece of history or a gorgeous garment is enough to brighten up your day.

 

[Dumpster Diver]

Youre risking some Dry rot and shrinkage that way though, its a double edged sword with leather and time, never forget that is the critical thing!

Wearing it Wears it out, but also keeps it broken in and fresh...double edge sword.

 

[rocketeer]

This sounds like the problem happening with the Movie industry making war films with original uniforms, Like those M-44 Jackets they used in Private Ryan that got full of holes and wrecked because it was cheaper to use original Wartime clothes than to buy Repro uniforms.

I have seen flight Jacket abuse in a movie recently...again, got me really going!


And to further your point about the cheapness of the Jackets given to RAF boys, I asked a real Veteran who was a spitfire pilot in the war what he did with his Sheepskin Irvin, and he said they all had to toss them into a huge heap after the war was over.

Those probly got re-sold even cheaper than they were bought, so back in the golden Days I guess if you were a post-war Biker you could get yourself an Irvin REAL cheap!

One of the things that gets me with re-enactors can be the use of original equipment(clothing), and it can happen a lot in the UK. We get so many enthusiasts dressing as representative of what would have been worn in , lets say WWII.
I am not rubbishing re-enacting though I would not do it myself, but it does look odd when you have a mix of reproduction A2, brand new shirt but 70 year old officer cap etc with obvious 70 year old wear and tear. Of course it can be the other way round, new pinks and hat and an obviously looking 70 year old flying jacket. To me it kind of looks funny because all these things would have looked fairly new in the age.

As to wearing original jackets on a daily basis, I did wear my A2 every weekend for about 10 years from the early 1980s onwards, ok thats not daily but still a lot of wear for something already 40 years old and it's still wearable today.
This may make all here cringe though. A friend had just bought a BSA A10 Super Rocket and invited me to come and have a look. I went over and after a night out rockin and rolling we left the ladies to chat and then retreated to the garage where the bike was. Did I want a go my friend asked. Did I need asking twice? As I only had my A2 with me I slipped it on and shot off down the road for a midnight 5 minutes. "What if you had come off, your jacket would have been ruined" my mrs said later. And I thought! Yes, if I had gone off as planned in just a t shirt(it was a warm summer night and I was a bit of a poser, hence the A2) I would have just about skinned myself had I crashed. Thank god I was wearing something. And that ride got me back into biking again.
Cheers all
And keep wearing those original jackets, as one day, and it may not be in your lifetime, it will fall to pieces and be gone. They are only dead animal skins after all.

 

[aswatland]

I don't think you have to wear your jacket, ever, to necessarily enjoy it. Sometimes just staring at it with admiration, knowing you own a piece of history or a gorgeous garment is enough to brighten up your day.

This is a sensible observation and succinctly put. These historic jackets can be worn regularly if the owner so desires but one runs the risk of damaging a valuable jacket with provenance. Worn occasionally with care is by far the more sensible thing to do. Of course if one buys a well worn, relatively low value Irvin and wears it every day in the winter, that may be ok and I have done this myself in the past. Now with advancing years I prefer to wear a robust repro without the same worry I would have of accidentally damaging a well preserved original.

 

[Dumpster Diver]

They are only dead animal skins after all.

Sure, on one hand..and then we have the other (but for the sake of Debate)

You cant choose a center.

Its measured hand-over-fist subjectionally, I think it should be more like a handshake.

To wear or not to wear. Hot and cold.

(Its like theres an overlapping *Happy medium* between wearing and preserving for me, that covers a vast and subjectional Spectrum that enigmatically vexes my wonderment)


Leather was therefore a once living thing, and that means its not JUST so linear. There is an individual spirit once living inside Said skin.

you are now living inside the dead vessel (part of me Believes certain things can store psychic Energies IE ghosts, and some of these Jackets have been put through some hard life trials and most likely absorbed a lot of the wearers emotional energies over a long time), this goes back to the very DISCOVERY of leather, to our primitive ancestors.

and on a psychic level

its practically instinctive to our DNA to wear leather, I have strong flashes of our collective consiousness wearing some old Hides.

there is a point where the spiritual realm crosses paths over the threshold of reality, these Jackets hold that kind of significance to me from time to time when I have the right pair of eyes to see them through.

That to me, is the overlooked secret of the leather.

Im actually Sick and tired of the whole *its just stuff* crap.

too many people like to remind me when I try to see the whole picture.. spend a time and take a very deep introspective look at things hard enough and then to me, the whole *Its just stuff* at the end of the day is such a easy way out..

Its not that I disagree, but Ive just heard it enough times that Im ready to call bull---t on that whole sentiment.



its lazy to me to Just Pass the buck like that.

Spend some, save some, give some away.

You chew your way through life without even tasting it first with that type of outlook.


Life is a mystery. Leather is a life.

there is no right or wrong answer. both are right in their own way.

wear it, or not...I see where youre coming from we cant take it with us..its not going anywhere off this little rock.

But we have to preserve them because they *are* physical connections to a BIG change in our history.

That is the connection part Im getting at, you gotta get the kids to see what these things are!

not as Some fashion statement or Status symbol.

you dont parade around in them like some pretty flower to be looked at!

I have the utmost respect for the people who first wore them so to me, wearing an original around casually day to day in this day and age is like rubbing my *---* in the face of death himself. so if I wear originals with provinence...Its a bit of a Big deal for me and I have to make it a bit of a homage or perform some small kind of ritual to honour the man who came before myself and who has entrusted me unknowingly to keep a part of them alive in one way or the other, even if its only in my heart and memories.

The vets are passing on, the time fades out a lot of the sharp details...

the flight Jackets that are still here echo the past.

I can smell and taste the cockpit...I put that Jacket on, and Im There.

That is the other thing, Its a very powerful thing to me to wear an original through town..it feels empowering somehow.

Sometimes great power resolves to be held by great responsability...so to me, the jackets deserve total respect even if they are Just some Mangy old scraps where the dog hunkers down on for the night.


kids need to have something fresh and clear right before their eyes to see the reality.

then they can take that and have a better context for their Imagination to visualize what being there was like!!!


Ironic isnt it.

If you think of the past reliving itself through and into the future in this way...Yeah Its Just old stuff.

But by god, I dont See the *STUFF*

Its everything else BUT the stuff that was the living essence surrounding it which is what I see sometimes.

but you need the actual*** object* (whatever it is) to function as the catalyst into its world.

the Jackets (to me) hold a great deal of metaphysical information, as do some of your personal effects hold significance to memories and moments of your life.

Why we Take photos of things, in order to remember! and re-live the past through them.

I dont see a 69 ford Mustang in the tim hortons parking lot, I see a man and his love for a peice of metal, the sponge baths he gave it, the hard work and sacrifice and dedication to enjoy something not everyone else gets the chance to enjoy.

I know him so well and I can pick him out in the whole crowd in the coffee shop, even though weve never met before.

to me, wearing an original is like a constant reminder of ones own mortality.

(Adendum)

--------


The resolve for me here in the facing that every single time Im touching or wearing or looking over and admiring one of these fine creations and see the end, its the strength that I have to perservere in the knowing (Not FEARING) that someday I will meet my maker, and answer to the man upstairs and so on...

Hence my life revolves around the Medieval european notion that; Thy Glass Runneth Quickly.

and make myself aware that there is no escaping it, better to simply be prepared for the inevitable.

The Jackets in that sense are a good life compass for me, they make me inspired to be better person I strive to be.

So it goes.

 

[Dumpster Diver]

P.s. deeply Sorry for Hijacking this Like theres no tommorow.

Its been giving me lots to think on, Now I have Decided to Get out my IRVIN and see how it goes from there.


Just waiting for the moment to hit when I get up and dig it out and post some Pics for you nice Gentlemen.

 

[thor]

Great introspective/philosophical musings DD. Certainly worthy of a new thread? Some folks don't want anything war-related in their home (some belief in karmic or psychic energy of a past link to war and death). I've owned one original Irvin long ago (a sad, dried up, unsalvageable beast that had seen better days). Sold it and bought an ELC Irvin. Warmest jacket I ever had!

 

[rocketeer]

Great introspective/philosophical musings DD. Certainly worthy of a new thread? Some folks don't want anything war-related in their home (some belief in karmic or psychic energy of a past link to war and death). I've owned one original Irvin long ago (a sad, dried up, unsalvageable beast that had seen better days). Sold it and bought an ELC Irvin. Warmest jacket I ever had!

I have had a few, no known history so dont know if they have seen action or were sold from a surplus store just after the war. Some were good condition some bad, but when they started to show any fatigue it was time for someone else to deal with that. All I remember is I had some great times wearing them

 

[alsendk]

Well written DD! gave me a good start this morning, to read this

 

[Spitfire]

Completely off the subject, but I dare say Spit, that that pic of you in your avatar borders on the iconic. Perhaps it's the forced nostalgia of the black and white. But it looks like you were born to wear that jacket. :thumb:

Thank you!

 

[Dumpster Diver]

Man this thread is going down faster than a lead balloon.

who Bombed BERLIN!!!

Bust em out! Scramble!!!



Speaking of Busting, this Jacket is On its last Legs and cracking at the seams.

I took a walk for you this afternoon, a very warm cozy walk.

 

[Otter]

Not got the weather for it here at the moment. Tvelve degrees Celsius and six inches of rain yesterday! More to come today and tomorrow.