New Aero D-Pocket Ridley-Blackened Brown Vicenza

[J Leather Investigater]

Definitely keeper

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[ProteinNerd]

The belt would drive me nuts but that's an awesome fit...honestly, I don't think you could get a better outcome going custom!

 

[VestCoast]

After spending a few hours each of the past couple days in the jacket, I've decided to keep it. Its a snug fit for sure, but I have pretty good range of motion. It's a little limiting when I try to hug myself (hang in there buddy) or reach over to my opposite shoulder, but I think this will become better when the jacket breaks in. I could potentially fix this issues by respeccing the jacket with an action back, but I feel like it would compromise the clean look of the back and in some cases teh action back can bag out over time, especially in a thinner leather.
The blackened brown vicenza is really quite a contrast to CXL, far more so than I had anticipated. It's wonderfully grainy and breathes a LOT better. The only thing I don't love about it is it's smell. Not really unpleasant, but nothing like the enticing aroma of CXL.

 

[ai00344]

After spending a few hours each of the past couple days in the jacket, I've decided to keep it. Its a snug fit for sure, but I have pretty good range of motion. It's a little limiting when I try to hug myself (hang in there buddy) or reach over to my opposite shoulder, but I think this will become better when the jacket breaks in. I could potentially fix this issues by respeccing the jacket with an action back, but I feel like it would compromise the clean look of the back and in some cases teh action back can bag out over time, especially in a thinner leather.
The blackened brown vicenza is really quite a contrast to CXL, far more so than I had anticipated. It's wonderfully grainy and breathes a LOT better. The only thing I don't love about it is it's smell. Not really unpleasant, but nothing like the enticing aroma of CXL.

Keep us posted on the blackened brown, I’m anxious to see how extreme / fast the Aero tea core develops

 

[VestCoast]

I wanted to update this post with some more recent pictures. I took this jacket with me to Chile for 10 days and almost never took it off. I got this jacket in mid April this year but with it being summer in Texas I've had to wear it sparingly in the summer months. I managed to wear the jacket a fair bit in the tail-end of spring but took advantage of it being winter in Chile and brought it with me. Travel really breaks in a jacket like nothing else.

This is my first jacket in the vicenza leather and found it incredibly comfortable but very different from cxl horsehide and steerhide. The leather has a drier feel that takes longer to mold and break in than cxl, but is much more comfortable from the start. I feel like the ridley has really started to break in and drapes better than it did when new. The grain is already pronounced in vicenza but it has gained a lot more character- greater graining texture in the depths of folds and smoothing at crease peaks.

The black-over-brown aspect of this leather was one of the main draws for me when looking for a moto-style jacket. My first leather jacket was an Aero Sheene in black cxlfqhh, and I love it. The teacore started developing in high wear areas pretty quickly. I picked up the Ridley because I wanted a D-pocket jacket and was looking for a lighter leather to add into my rotation. The black surface paint on the BBV leather seems to be incredibly colorfast. After around a month and a half of total wear time there is no brown peeking through any where on the jacket. The black cxlfqhh started showing wear on the zipper piping and wrists after only a handful of wears. It looks like it will take a lot of time and commitment to get a real patina going on the blackened brown vicenza, which I am looking forward to. I would recommend this leather to someone who is looking for something like the Fine Creek Leathers line-up without the accelerating aging-- you'll get the teacore affect and the grain, just over a much longer time scale. I will continue to update this thread with more evolution pictures but it will be a long term project, especially with the 100 degree summers were suffering through here in Texas.

 

[ai00344]

I wanted to update this post with some more recent pictures. I took this jacket with me to Chile for 10 days and almost never took it off. I got this jacket in mid April this year but with it being summer in Texas I've had to wear it sparingly in the summer months. I managed to wear the jacket a fair bit in the tail-end of spring but took advantage of it being winter in Chile and brought it with me. Travel really breaks in a jacket like nothing else.

This is my first jacket in the vicenza leather and found it incredibly comfortable but very different from cxl horsehide and steerhide. The leather has a drier feel that takes longer to mold and break in than cxl, but is much more comfortable from the start. I feel like the ridley has really started to break in and drapes better than it did when new. The grain is already pronounced in vicenza but it has gained a lot more character- greater graining texture in the depths of folds and smoothing at crease peaks.

The black-over-brown aspect of this leather was one of the main draws for me when looking for a moto-style jacket. My first leather jacket was an Aero Sheene in black cxlfqhh, and I love it. The teacore started developing in high wear areas pretty quickly. I picked up the Ridley because I wanted a D-pocket jacket and was looking for a lighter leather to add into my rotation. The black surface paint on the BBV leather seems to be incredibly colorfast. After around a month and a half of total wear time there is no brown peeking through any where on the jacket. The black cxlfqhh started showing wear on the zipper piping and wrists after only a handful of wears. It looks like it will take a lot of time and commitment to get a real patina going on the blackened brown vicenza, which I am looking forward to. I would recommend this leather to someone who is looking for something like the Fine Creek Leathers line-up without the accelerating aging-- you'll get the teacore affect and the grain, just over a much longer time scale. I will continue to update this thread with more evolution pictures but it will be a long term project, especially with the 100 degree summers were suffering through here in Texas.

Looks great man but your right about it being colourfast I don’t see any brown there yet at all. Sleeves are wrinkling up nicely!

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Does look very nice VC. No epaulets and body length is the way a MC jacket should fit IMO.
HD

 

[Peter Mackin]

Do you use this jacket for riding?

 

[technovox]

How did I miss this? Looks great on you! Maybe a little tight in the shoulders, but perhaps it's because you're layered up. Definitely much better without the belt...
I bought my Ridley (Dark Seal Vic) from Ksozay and I absolutely love it- one of my favorite jackets. Warning- be prepared to get a lot of compliments on it. People ask me constantly where I got my jacket...it's like a walking advertisement for Thurston Bros.
And if you ever decide to sell it...I wouldn't mind having one in the blackened brown!

 

[AeroFan_07]

Very impressive! looking great there. You are right, travel is the best way to break one of these in. Really liking how the creasing and grain is developing in your jacket there.

It's been so hot here in the midwest lately that I really cannot wear a jacket indoors at all. But soon, those temps are coming again.

 

[VestCoast]

Do you use this jacket for riding?

I don't ride, but even if I did I wouldn't do it in this jacket because the shoulder mobility isn't comfortable enough. I would probably wear s thicker jacket too, this jacket is substantial but doesn't have the armor feeling that CXL has.

 

[VestCoast]

How did I miss this? Looks great on you! Maybe a little tight in the shoulders, but perhaps it's because you're layered up. Definitely much better without the belt...
I bought my Ridley (Dark Seal Vic) from Ksozay and I absolutely love it- one of my favorite jackets. Warning- be prepared to get a lot of compliments on it. People ask me constantly where I got my jacket...it's like a walking advertisement for Thurston Bros.
And if you ever decide to sell it...I wouldn't mind having one in the blackened brown!

Thanks! This cut doesn't leave a lot of room in the shoulders, but it feels comfortable with a tee and I like the clean back so I opted to give up a little mobility for it. I think I could have sized up if I was planning to layer with anything but I've got one of Ton's bootleggers for that.

People definitely remark on the jacket, so the walking TB ad seems to be about right.

 

[ksozay]

How did I miss this? Looks great on you! Maybe a little tight in the shoulders, but perhaps it's because you're layered up. Definitely much better without the belt...
I bought my Ridley (Dark Seal Vic) from Ksozay and I absolutely love it- one of my favorite jackets. Warning- be prepared to get a lot of compliments on it. People ask me constantly where I got my jacket...it's like a walking advertisement for Thurston Bros.
And if you ever decide to sell it...I wouldn't mind having one in the blackened brown!

I got one Techno. Haven’t worn it yet but looks amazing!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Maitiu]

So, if I'm understanding you correctly, you're seeing more brown/patina from your black FQHH in the same period of time/wear than the BBV. In fact, you're not seeing any brown tones at all yet from the BBV?

 

[feltfan]

Wow, missed this the first time. Seems like a great fit- better than some custom jackets I've seen/have.
If you can wear a hoodie under it, it's not too tight!
Enjoy! Great jacket.

 

[Skanstull]

I am really looking forward to seeing updates on this one!

 

[VestCoast]

So, if I'm understanding you correctly, you're seeing more brown/patina from your black FQHH in the same period of time/wear than the BBV. In fact, you're not seeing any brown tones at all yet from the BBV?

Yep, thats pretty much it. The black coat on the vicenza is a lot more stubborn than the one on cxl, at least in my experience.

 

[Mr Knight]

Any updates? It’ll be interesting to see how the leather has aged.

 

[dudewuttheheck]

The fit on that jacket looks perfect. It looks amazing.

 

[VestCoast]

I'll see if I can get some pics soon. I really enjoy this jacket in part because it so different from any other leather I've worn. In terms of the blackened brown aspect, its quite resilient, not seeing any real wearing of the top coat. I don't have a macro lens but I'll see if I can get some close ups.