d4nimal
Familiar Face
- Messages
- 61
- Location
- Philadelphia
Hey guys,
I wanted to share with you the Real McCoy's x Harley-Davidson 1930s aviator I picked up on Yahoo Japan Auctions a little while back that many of you were nice enough to educate me about and give me pointers on (especially Blackadder and Ace. I actually was bidding AGAINST Blackadder, it turns out). It got here a few weeks ago, though it's been too hot to wear it in Philly.
I've written a longer post on my personal blog not aimed at TFL-level enthusiasts with some more pictures as well which I'd love if you give your opinions/corrections on, but I'm going to try and focus it a bit more here.
Specs:
Manufacturer: The Real McCoy's x Harley-Davidson (produced by RM New Zealand)
Style: 1930s Aviator
Material: Black overdye tea core horsehide, semi-aniline
Approximate Dating: Late 1990s
Origin: New Zealand
Size: 36
Features:
-Asymmetric zip double rider
-Hidden snap-down W collar
-No epaulets
-D-pocket, single slash pocket
-Main brass Conmar zip with leather pull, D-pocket brass Talon diamond chain pull
-Half beltback
-D-ring side adjusters
-Center back inverted pleat
-Buttoning sleeves
Background:
The Real McCoy's, prior to the breakup and change of ownership in 2001-2002, is referred to as the "Old" Real McCoy's on many Japanese sites and auctions. During this time, they collaborated with Harley-Davidson on recreating several vintage jackets. The early 1990s saw more of the colorful 1960s-1970s models with a white HD label, and later 1990s production focused on older models of the Sport Jacket and Golden Age eras. This RM x HD jacket is typical of 1930s aviators in the Sport Jacket era, as compared to references in Rin Tanaka's Century of Leather Design and Lightning Archives' motorcycle jacket book.
The jacket, and I presume all of the leather jackets made by RM prior to 2001-2002, was made in New Zealand by RMNZ aka The Few. The Few actually ended up producing a jacket later on called The Hurricane, which I surmise might be a direct descendant of this jacket, though it's hard to say. There have been several modern reproductions of the same style made by a few companies, and the style was very common for the era.
Leather:
I had no idea what to expect, honestly. Present day RM Buco's are made with Shinki horsehide, which is a semi aniline veg-tanned hide. I don't own any Shink HH, nor do I have much experience w/ horsehide jackets aside from a few vintage jackets I've handled in the past. So I wish I knew where this horsehide was from, but I can only wager a huge guess of Italy (Badalassi?) based on some leather The Few sourced in later years. If anyone has more information on this I'd love to know more about it.
What I can say is it's a fairly midweight leather, semi aniline, black tea-core, remarkably pliant and in excellent shape. There's just a touch of tea-core showing through at the cuffs, the back of the collar, etc. There's also very little creasing on the sleeves as well as throughout the jacket. Seems like it's seen very little wear over the past 20-odd years.
I'm hoping to get the type of fading out of it eventually seen on stuff like member @A-1 's Diamond Dave jacket (I hope he doesn't mind me putting some pictures of it in my review showing how amazing tea core can look), but I have to psych myself up to wear my leather in the rain, etc.
Construction:
Construction and attention to detail are very good. Ever so slightly better than my Schott Hand Oiled Perfecto 619, which in itself is very good. I can't find fault with any stitching, allowances, etc.
Some stitching comparison below.
Fit:
Some of you might be familiar with buying Japanese clothes, but they have a tendency to fit a size smaller than US sizing and have less vanity sizing in general. That's evidenced by their current line of Buco jackets and what I hear about Flathead jackets, for example. So you can imagine my extreme trepidation with ordering a size 36 Japanese jacket when I'm a 36-38R normally in suiting. I dropped about 10 pounds over the past couple of months, so that helps, but general fear and doubt ruled the day until it showed up.
When it finally showed up, I actually set it on the table and measured it, too scared to just put it on at first. It matched the measurements, phew! So I put it on slowwwwwly. Sleeves were long enough - check. Shoulders - check. I finally worked up the nerve to zip the Conmar up and breathed my last sigh of relief. It zipped, and didn't feel like a corset. It also doesn't pull significantly when standing.
That's not to say it's not smaller in the chest and shoulders than my 619 Perfecto, as well as a bit shorter - though the 619 is built longer than most Perfectos. But I'm hoping it actually relaxes just slightly as time goes on. The RM hits at the belt line, which has a slightly low rise usually (it's hard to get away from low rise jeans/pants in the modern age). I think it hits all the right critical points for fit, though it's not something I could layer under.
Some issues I noticed, though - my right shoulder doesn't always lie flat even with the shoulder width matching my own. It's not super noticeable, but I notice it sometimes. And when worn open, there's a portion of the bottom left of the back of the jacket that flares out a little, and looks funny - dare I say a little feminine. Zipped up that doesn't happen at all. I tried dampening a paper towel and pressing the area flat for a day under a book so it wouldn't do that to no avail. As I said, not huge stuff, but not perfect.
Summary:
Current Real McCoy's Buco jackets retail ~ $2000 USD. I'm not saying they're not worth it - I think value to every person is a difficult thing to judge in blanket statements. I am saying I couldn't afford that type of price, though. I think the relatively unknown RM x HD line and maybe distrust of an unknown entity may have helped me out tremendously with the price as I can't find much fault with the jacket, though I've seen several listings for used RM x HD around the $1000 mark and above as well. In any regard, it's still early and I need time to digest how I feel about it in the end, but on first impressions I'm digging it overall. Can't wait til the weather isn't punishingly hot so I can wear it out.
Please let me know what you think - about the jacket styling, fit, info above. TFL is where I got a ton of the information that helped me research this purchase, and I'm always open to more education.
I wanted to share with you the Real McCoy's x Harley-Davidson 1930s aviator I picked up on Yahoo Japan Auctions a little while back that many of you were nice enough to educate me about and give me pointers on (especially Blackadder and Ace. I actually was bidding AGAINST Blackadder, it turns out). It got here a few weeks ago, though it's been too hot to wear it in Philly.
I've written a longer post on my personal blog not aimed at TFL-level enthusiasts with some more pictures as well which I'd love if you give your opinions/corrections on, but I'm going to try and focus it a bit more here.
Specs:
Manufacturer: The Real McCoy's x Harley-Davidson (produced by RM New Zealand)
Style: 1930s Aviator
Material: Black overdye tea core horsehide, semi-aniline
Approximate Dating: Late 1990s
Origin: New Zealand
Size: 36
Features:
-Asymmetric zip double rider
-Hidden snap-down W collar
-No epaulets
-D-pocket, single slash pocket
-Main brass Conmar zip with leather pull, D-pocket brass Talon diamond chain pull
-Half beltback
-D-ring side adjusters
-Center back inverted pleat
-Buttoning sleeves
Background:
The Real McCoy's, prior to the breakup and change of ownership in 2001-2002, is referred to as the "Old" Real McCoy's on many Japanese sites and auctions. During this time, they collaborated with Harley-Davidson on recreating several vintage jackets. The early 1990s saw more of the colorful 1960s-1970s models with a white HD label, and later 1990s production focused on older models of the Sport Jacket and Golden Age eras. This RM x HD jacket is typical of 1930s aviators in the Sport Jacket era, as compared to references in Rin Tanaka's Century of Leather Design and Lightning Archives' motorcycle jacket book.
The jacket, and I presume all of the leather jackets made by RM prior to 2001-2002, was made in New Zealand by RMNZ aka The Few. The Few actually ended up producing a jacket later on called The Hurricane, which I surmise might be a direct descendant of this jacket, though it's hard to say. There have been several modern reproductions of the same style made by a few companies, and the style was very common for the era.
Leather:
I had no idea what to expect, honestly. Present day RM Buco's are made with Shinki horsehide, which is a semi aniline veg-tanned hide. I don't own any Shink HH, nor do I have much experience w/ horsehide jackets aside from a few vintage jackets I've handled in the past. So I wish I knew where this horsehide was from, but I can only wager a huge guess of Italy (Badalassi?) based on some leather The Few sourced in later years. If anyone has more information on this I'd love to know more about it.
What I can say is it's a fairly midweight leather, semi aniline, black tea-core, remarkably pliant and in excellent shape. There's just a touch of tea-core showing through at the cuffs, the back of the collar, etc. There's also very little creasing on the sleeves as well as throughout the jacket. Seems like it's seen very little wear over the past 20-odd years.
I'm hoping to get the type of fading out of it eventually seen on stuff like member @A-1 's Diamond Dave jacket (I hope he doesn't mind me putting some pictures of it in my review showing how amazing tea core can look), but I have to psych myself up to wear my leather in the rain, etc.
Construction:
Construction and attention to detail are very good. Ever so slightly better than my Schott Hand Oiled Perfecto 619, which in itself is very good. I can't find fault with any stitching, allowances, etc.
Some stitching comparison below.
Fit:
Some of you might be familiar with buying Japanese clothes, but they have a tendency to fit a size smaller than US sizing and have less vanity sizing in general. That's evidenced by their current line of Buco jackets and what I hear about Flathead jackets, for example. So you can imagine my extreme trepidation with ordering a size 36 Japanese jacket when I'm a 36-38R normally in suiting. I dropped about 10 pounds over the past couple of months, so that helps, but general fear and doubt ruled the day until it showed up.
When it finally showed up, I actually set it on the table and measured it, too scared to just put it on at first. It matched the measurements, phew! So I put it on slowwwwwly. Sleeves were long enough - check. Shoulders - check. I finally worked up the nerve to zip the Conmar up and breathed my last sigh of relief. It zipped, and didn't feel like a corset. It also doesn't pull significantly when standing.
That's not to say it's not smaller in the chest and shoulders than my 619 Perfecto, as well as a bit shorter - though the 619 is built longer than most Perfectos. But I'm hoping it actually relaxes just slightly as time goes on. The RM hits at the belt line, which has a slightly low rise usually (it's hard to get away from low rise jeans/pants in the modern age). I think it hits all the right critical points for fit, though it's not something I could layer under.
Some issues I noticed, though - my right shoulder doesn't always lie flat even with the shoulder width matching my own. It's not super noticeable, but I notice it sometimes. And when worn open, there's a portion of the bottom left of the back of the jacket that flares out a little, and looks funny - dare I say a little feminine. Zipped up that doesn't happen at all. I tried dampening a paper towel and pressing the area flat for a day under a book so it wouldn't do that to no avail. As I said, not huge stuff, but not perfect.
Summary:
Current Real McCoy's Buco jackets retail ~ $2000 USD. I'm not saying they're not worth it - I think value to every person is a difficult thing to judge in blanket statements. I am saying I couldn't afford that type of price, though. I think the relatively unknown RM x HD line and maybe distrust of an unknown entity may have helped me out tremendously with the price as I can't find much fault with the jacket, though I've seen several listings for used RM x HD around the $1000 mark and above as well. In any regard, it's still early and I need time to digest how I feel about it in the end, but on first impressions I'm digging it overall. Can't wait til the weather isn't punishingly hot so I can wear it out.
Please let me know what you think - about the jacket styling, fit, info above. TFL is where I got a ton of the information that helped me research this purchase, and I'm always open to more education.
