My Newest Leather Jacket... the famous GriffDeLaGriff Arturo Jacket...

[Navin323i]

I know what you all are thinking... "why does GriffDeLaGriff sound familiar"?

LOL... I am indeed talking about our site's member, GriffDeLaGriff from Norway.

Some of you may have seen pics of his jacket a while back... basically I saw that jacket and instantly fell in love with it. After learning that Griff wasn't wearing this jacket at all I decided to contact him to see if I could persuade him to sell it to me.

Griff was nice enough to give me the jacket for free... of course I paid shipping for the jacket from Norway to here in Maryland.

All I can say is WOW!!! The jacket fits me nicely and the patina on this jacket is absolutely unreal. The jacket is French-made but Griff purchased this jacket about 20 years ago from a shop in Sweden.

I want to thank Griff for his kindness in giving me this jacket... and as a special gift he included a bag of delicious Norwegian candy with the jacket... very cool of him to do that.

Pics are below... thanks again Griff!

The patina is amazing on this jacket... can you believe that 20 years ago this was a solid black leather jacket?

This is my first jacket with the G-1 style inside vertical pocket

Here's Griff looking great in the jacket.

The jacket seems to fit me well.

There's a tear that you can see on the back of the jacket in the upper section thanks to Griff's cat... I'll definitely get it repaired at some point.

Thanks for looking.

 

[too much coffee]

Hey Navin,

Very, very cool looking jacket!
That Griff.........what a stand up generous guy, huh?

Enjoy brother man, coffee

 

[kyboots]

Griff Jacket

OMG that is a fabulous jacket. Hey Griff! any 44-46L laying around? John

 

[The Good]

A great jacket with lot's of character. Congratulations, It looks like it fits well too! You did good.

 

[GriffDeLaGriff]

Wow Navin it fits you better then me. You look super cool. :eusa_clap

I dont have any more jackets lying around. The reason this jacket has that
wear is becasaue it was my only jacket for many years and I wore it day in and day out.

Im glad it found a new home to someone who really liked it.
After gettting the Aero jackets (and even after wearing the harley more)
and switching back to this jacket It looked very much too big.
I couldnt see myself wearing it looking so big after having the great custom
made jackets. But I didnt really want to throw it away so It was just stored
in the attic.
I want to point out that I was lifting weights and working out both judo
and karate before and I was alot bigger, this is the reason the jacket
doesnt fit anymore, I got a tendiose problem in arms and legs and cannot
work out at all so Im trying to find a balance to not go up in weight without workout
and still be trim (very hard when you love food and candy) Walking helps.

I have been thinking about that thinner upper panel with a hole in it.
I wonder if one could remove the lining and then glue a similar panel onto that
one from the inside. This would make the part more durable and you could
glue the patch-hole from the cat straight onto that, and then insert new lining.
I dont know if this would work, just something I thought of.
Maybe just a piece of denim would work, as the glue will also be hard.
You should ask someone about it so you dont ruin the jacket.

 

[Carnage]

Looking very good indeed, jackets look so much better when they have some wear and boy does that have some wear!

 

[Dav]

Hi Navin
That's a very fine looking jacket you have there.
It would appear my view of people in general is wrong and that there is still some decent folk out there, Griff being one of them.
Do you intend putting conditioner on it or leaving as is?
Dav

 

[Edward]

I don;'t remember seeing the pictoral label when Griff posted photos of this jacket before. It appears to depict a USAAF bomber crew standing beside their plane? Interesting, that. I wonder did the company that produced it originate from (or at least do well out of exploiting) the post WW2 surge of popularity of bomber-style leather jackets - the romanticised flyboy image?

RThe wear on the jacket is interesting - actually, in Navin's photos where it has worn to a sort of tan shade in parts makes it look great with those khakis, not something i would normally think of with black leather.

 

[Peacoat]

Both of you did well: Griff got a good home for his jacket and Navin got a good leather jacket. I would think that after those years of being stored in the attice, the jacket would welcome a treatment of Picards.

 

[GriffDeLaGriff]

It has actually just being stored there since I got the Highwayman and thats not very long. (2 months maybe)

I still wore it regularly last year.

Some picard wouldnt hurt tho

 

[Navin323i]

Hey Navin,

Very, very cool looking jacket!
That Griff.........what a stand up generous guy, huh?

Enjoy brother man, coffee

Good morning, Coffee!

Thank you so much! Griff is definitely the man... definitely a stand up generous guy.

 

[Navin323i]

OMG that is a fabulous jacket. Hey Griff! any 44-46L laying around? John

Thanks John!

 

[Navin323i]

A great jacket with lot's of character. Congratulations, It looks like it fits well too! You did good.

Thank you so much, J.B.

 

[Navin323i]

Wow Navin it fits you better then me. You look super cool. :eusa_clap

I dont have any more jackets lying around. The reason this jacket has that
wear is becasaue it was my only jacket for many years and I wore it day in and day out.

Im glad it found a new home to someone who really liked it.
After gettting the Aero jackets (and even after wearing the harley more)
and switching back to this jacket It looked very much too big.
I couldnt see myself wearing it looking so big after having the great custom
made jackets. But I didnt really want to throw it away so It was just stored
in the attic.
I want to point out that I was lifting weights and working out both judo
and karate before and I was alot bigger, this is the reason the jacket
doesnt fit anymore, I got a tendiose problem in arms and legs and cannot
work out at all so Im trying to find a balance to not go up in weight without workout
and still be trim (very hard when you love food and candy) Walking helps.

I have been thinking about that thinner upper panel with a hole in it.
I wonder if one could remove the lining and then glue a similar panel onto that
one from the inside. This would make the part more durable and you could
glue the patch-hole from the cat straight onto that, and then insert new lining.
I dont know if this would work, just something I thought of.
Maybe just a piece of denim would work, as the glue will also be hard.
You should ask someone about it so you dont ruin the jacket.

Thanks again for your kindness and generousity in giving me this jacket for free, Griff. Great suggestions you made in regards to fixing the hole. I definitely will get the jacket fixed soon and will have the work done by the same guy who fixed my India leather jacket and Irvin Foster jackets.

I seriously love the jacket... the patina adds character and the padding on the shoulder and elbows is something I've never seen on a leather jacket, though I'm sure other motorcycle jackets have similar paddings there.

 

[Navin323i]

Looking very good indeed, jackets look so much better when they have some wear and boy does that have some wear!

Thanks Carnage!

 

[Navin323i]

Hi Navin
That's a very fine looking jacket you have there.
It would appear my view of people in general is wrong and that there is still some decent folk out there, Griff being one of them.
Do you intend putting conditioner on it or leaving as is?
Dav

Hi Dav,

Thank you so much for the kind words. You are absolutely right... in my humble opinion, one of the true joys in life is coming across truly exceptional people of high character... like finding a good apple in a barrel of bad apples, LOL. Griff is a good guy for sure.

I intend on putting on the Pecards Antique Leather dressing that I used on my vintage Irvin Foster steerhide jacket. The dressing won't darken the leather and it did a great job conditioning my Irvin jacket.

Take care bro,
Navin

 

[Navin323i]

I don;'t remember seeing the pictoral label when Griff posted photos of this jacket before. It appears to depict a USAAF bomber crew standing beside their plane? Interesting, that. I wonder did the company that produced it originate from (or at least do well out of exploiting) the post WW2 surge of popularity of bomber-style leather jackets - the romanticised flyboy image?

RThe wear on the jacket is interesting - actually, in Navin's photos where it has worn to a sort of tan shade in parts makes it look great with those khakis, not something i would normally think of with black leather.

Hey Edward,
I first saw pics of this amazing Arturo jacket in Griff's introductory thread here...
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=44318

Yeah, I noticed the military-themed jacket label picture on the interior lining of the jacket. I agree with you... perhaps 20 years ago when this jacket was made, the company that made the jacket used that theme due to the popularity of military bomber-style leather jackets.

The patina on the jacket seemed to match up nicely with my khakis so I decided to go with that combination... plus you can't see from the picture but I'm actually wearing khaki colored cargo shorts. I'm on crutches now due to internal bleeding in my left knee (doctors don't know why but are guessing a torn ACL even though I had no direct trauma to my knee) so because of my knee brace I'm wearing shorts now both at work and home.

 

[Navin323i]

Both of you did well: Griff got a good home for his jacket and Navin got a good leather jacket. I would think that after those years of being stored in the attice, the jacket would welcome a treatment of Picards.

Thank you so much!! You read my mind too... I'll definitely be using Pecards Antique Leather dressing.

 

[jon z]

Griff & Sting - One & the same?

Griff you're very generous gifting your jacket. You're obviously one of life's good guys. I can't help being reminded of Sting when I look at this pic of you.

I agree that the jacket seems to fit Navin better than Griff, the arm length particularly.

Navin you're one lucky dude, which I'm sure you appreciate. Enjoy that jackets in good health for many years to come.

This is not the first instance I know of of one member here sending another a leather jacket FOC. The FL is a great place with some really great people.

 

[Navin323i]

Griff you're very generous gifting your jacket. You're obviously one of life's good guys. I can't help being reminded of Sting when I look at this pic of you.

I agree that the jacket seems to fit Navin better than Griff, the arm length particularly.

Navin you're one lucky dude, which I'm sure you appreciate. Enjoy that jackets in good health for many years to come.

This is not the first instance I know of of one member here sending another a leather jacket FOC. The FL is a great place with some really great people.

Thanks John! OMG... you're right... Griff does look like Sting.

It's funny... many Italian people I meet often tell me I look like one of their Italian singers... "Fiorello" is the name of the Italian singer.

So basically Sting gave a nice leather jacket to Fiorello.