Personalizing a jacket - patches and pins

[greenc]

Hi Everyone,

Hope Saturday's taking it easy on you all. I'd love everyone's thoughts on this look - I dig it when people personalize their jackets with patches, pins, illustrations, or other things that are meaningful to them or appeal to them on a design level.

The guys in these photos are too cool, I love it.

So have any of you done this? Photos would be outstanding, I'm interested in what everyone likes. Thanks much, looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Enjoy the weekend.

Chris

 

[jeo]

I like these jackets with patches and pins although imo there’s a fine line where it can get to be too much.

When it comes to painted jackets then for me, I’m way more selective and the subject matter has to be right and to my liking.

I have a couple of vintage jackets that have some original pins and I also have one jacket that I’ve dedicated to customizing and personalizing with my own stuff.

Here’s one of my vintage jackets that I bought from the original owner who put these AMA pins on in the early 60’s. Subtle but still enough to look pretty cool.

And here’s the jacket with all my stuff. I’m far from done with it.

 

[greenc]

Jeo, those jackets are outstanding, I love 'em. Fantastic when people just own the look - it's their jacket and not one they're gonna sell, they wear it like that because it makes them happy. Fantastic, thank you for sharing.

Chris

 

[Aloysius]

I haven't done it to any of my leather jackets, partly perhaps because I feel like I haven't quite done anything cool enough to merit it like being a fighter pilot or something, partly because I don't want to put holes in a jacket. (Although if I got a jacket that already had pin holes, I would make use of them, like the J-24L I briefly owned that was too small, so I passed it on to Marc; I actually got a few pins and was going to pick one to put in the pinhole.)

But, like @jeo, I have a modern Perfecto that I mean to use as a platform for pins and the like. Feels less like 'damage' than doing it to something from before the 80s, and it's one I got a really great deal on.

 

[Madhouse27]

As a Perfecto wearing, Triumph riding old rocker, I really like the look of a well decorated jacket. I’m not going to sacrifice my 613sh, but have been looking for a good older 613 or 618 for the project. I’ve collected a good selection of patches, studs and pins! I don’t think my current sewing machine is quite up to the task so I probably need an upgrade here as well.

 

[greenc]

Those are fantastic photos - those guys look so cool, as do their jackets. Love that. I'm collecting patches too, looking to decorate an old CR with them this summer.

I'm in Canada but I'll likely send everything to Dena Hamilton at Leather Care Specialists in the US so she can open the lining and attach the patches the right way. If you sew them straight through the leather and the lining then the lining can't move independently of the jacket, which is important.

Again I dig these photos and wish you luck with your 613/618 project - post photos when it's done. Enjoy the rest of Sunday.

Chris

 

[Aloysius]

As a Perfecto wearing, Triumph riding old rocker, I really like the look of a well decorated jacket. I’m not going to sacrifice my 613sh, but have been looking for a good older 613 or 618 for the project. I’ve collected a good selection of patches, studs and pins! I don’t think my current sewing machine is quite up to the task so I probably need an upgrade here as well.

What size are you in the 613SH? I can probably find you one for cheap next time I'm at the factory.

 

[Madhouse27]

What size are you in the 613SH? I can probably find you one for cheap next time I'm at the factory.

Sold the 42 and kept the 44…it’s perfect! I appreciate the offer but I’m not sure if I could bring myself to attack a brand new one lol.

 

[Aloysius]

Sold the 42 and kept the 44…it’s perfect! I appreciate the offer but I’m not sure if I could bring myself to attack a brand new one lol.

While I get what you mean, when it's a brand new one that's like 1/3 price due to being a production sample or something I find it much less daunting than say pinning a historic jacket or full price jacket. (The one I'll do it to is such a sample.)

 

[newtojackets]

While I get what you mean, when it's a brand new one that's like 1/3 price due to being a production sample or something I find it much less daunting than say pinning a historic jacket or full price jacket. (The one I'll do it to is such a sample.)

Are they really 2/3 off at the annual schott sales?

 

[Aloysius]

Are they really 2/3 off at the annual schott sales?

Depends. If you want to buy a jacket from standard shop/catalog stock, it's about 25% off.

The bigger deals are on the racks, and there you are likely to get at least 50% off.

 

[greenc]

Depends. If you want to buy a jacket from standard shop/catalog stock, it's about 25% off.

The bigger deals are on the racks, and there you are likely to get at least 50% off.

How can you find out when the sale is, and does Schott buy back used jackets like Vanson does?

 

[Aloysius]

How can you find out when the sale is, and does Schott buy back used jackets like Vanson does?

It's every fall at the factory. And no they don't.

 

[mumpy]

I used to do that with denim jackets when I was a teenager. I think it works better if you have a single jacket that you wear a lot and over time you embellish it with memorabilia (sometimes I would get pins from other people to put on my jacket etc.). For me it is not the same thing to take a jacket that I barely wear in rotation with many others and start putting pins on it, it feels too artificial and forced so I never do it anymore (and those pins have no meaningful association anymore, they are just for show).

 

[Carlos840]

I used to do that with denim jackets when I was a teenager. I think it works better if you have a single jacket that you wear a lot and over time you embellish it with memorabilia (sometimes I would get pins from other people to put on my jacket etc.). For me it is not the same thing to take a jacket that I barely wear in rotation with many others and start putting pins on it, it feels too artificial and forced so I never do it anymore (and those pins have no meaningful association anymore, they are just for show).

I feel the same way, i undestand having one jacket that morphs into a patched and pinned beast over years of riding and living, but things cross into the fancy dress costum pretty fast.
To me all these dudes don't look cool, they look like they are going to a themed party.

 

[Edward]

Inevitably, I came through the idea of pinned and patched jackets in my youth via metal and punk rock subcultures. Later worked backwards and discovered the rocker thing, largely via the Clash. A lot of their aesthetic (as well as the popularity of British leather brands like Lewis, Highwayman, Mascot in the wider punk rock crowd) drew on the rockers. Paul Simonon was born into a motorcycling family, and their manager in the early days, Bernie Rhoads, was steeped in a deep knowledge of youth subcultures from the 50s onwards and nudged them no that a bit. I discovered rockabilly via the Clash, really, which became a whole new adventure. I like the idea of a patched jacket, maybe. I've long been tempted to pick up a cheap one for that purpose - wouldn't spend big money on it as I know it'd have limited wear time. Never put a pin on any of my leathers, stick to textile for that. I'm not sure why I like the idea of the permanently sewn on patches and not pins... I suppose it's because the pins are neither fish nor fowl. Not quite a permanent addition to the leather jacket, and yet leave an unsightly pinhole behind when removed. I'm sure the financial hit a new jacket represents plays into it.

Jackets in the OP reference the British Rocker subculture which was at its peak roughly 1959-1964. There's a thread from some years ago about the jackets of that period here - https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/british-rocker-jackets-c-1956-1969.82375/page-6 - unfortunately a lot of the links are broken now. (This one went up in the days before we had the bandwidth to host our own photos in the same way).

There are some great photos of this sort of thing worn in situ here - https://www.the59club.co.uk/photos in the 59 Club's photo archives. As the photos will show, while decorating jackets was always a thing, not so many were as heavily decorated then as has become the tendency among a lot of the revival scene centred on the re-opened Ace Cafe (last of the original London Rocker hangouts, really - though the original café closed its doors in 1969 when the North Circular was replaced as the main thoroughfare through that part of London, the cafe was reopened in 1997, building on the 'rocker reunion' events that began in the early 90s). It's not unlike A2s, really - the number of repros you might see with artwork and patches worn at some events far outstrip the really rather small proportion of those which were actually painted up during the war. AVG jackets made now even moreso; given they were in action for such a short period before being subsumed back into the USAAF few - I've yet to see any - were quite as decorated as the tribute jackets you see available nowadays. HiStar Classics https://www.instagram.com/histarclassics/ dealers in Vintage jackets often have great images of original rocker jackets they've passed through. They used to have a permanent stall in Camden market before it got gussied up within the last 15 years or so; they mostly deal online and at events now afaik - I think they also do Portobello as well, down the Westway end off Latimer Grove.