Sources of Irvin trousers?

[GHarris]

Hi folks,

New member here. I recently became the proud owner of an Irvin jacket (pictured) which I'm very happy with. The colour, the fit, and the quality are just what I wanted.

There's nothing wrong with buying an Irvin simply because I liked it, but I had a fairly eccentric side-role for it in mind too.

I'm an amateur astronomer. Folks joke that I don't feel the cold as much as the average person... but several hours spent stationary, outside on a frosty night, looking through a telescope eyepiece will drain the energy out of anyone. Sitting, inactive, in cold conditions is perhaps the one thing I have in common with a WW2 aviator! There are less nutty ways of keeping warm whilst stargazing but I'm pretty shamelessly eccentric and I'd like to try using a full Irvin suit, adding a set of trousers to go with the jacket.

I got my jacket from Aero (latewar model, size 42) and I'm delighted with it. But they don't make the trousers. And very few other people do.

So far the limited options I've been able to find are:

Aviation Leathercraft - I don't like their take on the Irvin jacket much but the trousers, though not authentic, might suffice... with one snag. They only come in one colour. I asked - they don't offer anything but the pictured shade, which looks a little more on the "seal" side than the russet of my Aero jacket. (link: https://www.flying-jacket.com/media/1112/irvin-trousers-2-1.jpg)

Eastman - well, not Irvin trousers, but they make American A-3 trousers. Not a perfect match either and the pockets might be in a less useful place. (link: http://www.eastmanleather.com/images/product_splashes/A-3trouserslarge.jpg)

Ebay? - Maybe if I fish around for long enough I'll find russet-coloured trousers in decent condition, but I'm not sure this is likely to happen anytime soon!

Does anyone here know of a source of trousers that I haven't noticed? Or is there anything I haven't considered? I haven't found much discussion of the trouser half of the Irvin suit so I'm not even sure whether there are any gotchas I need to be aware of.

I'm terrible at imagining how colours go together - I might very well just opt for the ALC trousers and put up with the mismatch, but I'm struggling to decide whether it'll look OK. In the dark it won't make a great deal of difference... but if I ever want to wear these in any other context it seems a shame to have a suit that clashes with itself!

P.S. Thanks to Sloan1874 - reading about his late-war Aero Irvin is what first got me into this mess!

 

[John Lever]

I'd buy a pair of ex german army winter nylon quilted trousers. They are relatively cheap at 25 gbp, lightweight and can be machone washed. I bought mine on ebay.

 

[Cooper A-2]

The German trousers will match with the Aero Irvin colour?

 

[John Lever]

The German trousers will match with the Aero Irvin colour?

If it's dark who will see them ?

 

[GHarris]

Thanks for the suggestion. There are any number of options for "the wrong trousers", but I'm glad to be aware of another one, regardless. Any others are welcome, I'm happy to have something to consider.

As I said, I know I'm a little bit nuts! I'd like to get something that at least somewhat matches the jacket. Yes, I'll wear it in the dark, mostly in my own back garden without company... astronomy is generally best done away from people and their pesky security lighting...

But as and when any other occasion to wear them crops up, I'd like something that looks at least vaguely similar to the jacket. And regardless (yes, it's eccentric!) *I* will know what I'm wearing and I'd like it to be right. I've no problem with anyone finding that funny

Maybe the ALC trousers are similar enough. I'm open to opinions since I'm pretty clueless at judging colours. Or maybe there's another alternative I hadn't considered. Whatever - I'd be glad to hear any ideas.

EDIT: Some years ago a chap called "PADDY" posted some lovely pictures of his original Irvin suit (in astonishingly good condition!). Might as well link to those posts:
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/thre...in-sheeps-clothing.35313/page-17#post-1087789

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/thre...in-sheeps-clothing.35313/page-35#post-1252971

 

[aswatland]

If you want to buy trousers which match the jacket then I would suggest an original pair of Irvin trousers. You can buy a decent pair for around £250 to £350 these days on Ebay and from dealers.

 

[Cooper A-2]

there is a pair on the bay.co.uk right now

 

[aswatland]

Do you mean these ones? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/World-War...520666?hash=item1ec52478da:g:YXUAAOSw4GVYO0Xn

They have condition and repair issues and are over priced.

 

[Edward]

Lovely Irvin: Ken really nailed the look when he revised the patterns imo. There is a real shortage of repro in the trousers.... I guess Hollywood (or, at least, the British war films of the sixties that created much of the cultural fetishisation of ww2) never managed to romanticise the bottom half of the suit! Most of the originals by now seem to have been hacked up to repair jackets. Aside from the ALC, nobody else repops them.

The other alternative for something authentic to wear with them might be a repop of a pair of Luftwaffe Kanal suit Winter trousers.

Think Adolf Galland... He wore an Irvin he traded with a downed RAF pilot with his Luftwaffe kit. There's documented historical correctness right there.

 

[John Lever]

The practicality of going to the toilet might be an issue if wearing 70 year old sheepskin trousers.

 

[aswatland]

Galland acquired a complete Irvin suit from a bomber crewman early in the War. The jacket was made by Wareings of Northampton. There simply is not the demand today to make repro Irvin trousers a viable proposition and the demand for repro Irvin jackets is not what it was a few years ago.

 

[Otter]

Anyone else getting a useless viglink shopping redirect when you try to click the eBay link ? Not Andrews fault, i woud suspect a forum issue.

Back to the meat of the issue, have you considered some modern high altitude mountaineering trousers. Light, waterproof, warm.

 

[Cooper A-2]

same here..

 

[Otter]

BTW, I am impressed you can do any optical astronomy in Lincolnshire. I sold my little Meade as the sickly orange barf glow washed out anything you wanted to look at. I am just South of the Central Belt in Scotland and the aurora bora glasgow is just a killer.

 

[GHarris]

Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions. You've given me something to think about.

BTW, I am impressed you can do any optical astronomy in Lincolnshire. I sold my little Meade as the sickly orange barf glow washed out anything you wanted to look at. I am just South of the Central Belt in Scotland and the aurora bora glasgow is just a killer.

Few places in the UK are perfect but my corner of Lincolnshire isn't bad. I live in a quiet village in the Vale of Belvoir, it's one of the darker areas locally. Much of the light from the nearest town is tucked behind a hill and Nottingham is at least a fair distance away.

I know nothing about astrophotography but I took this picture, handheld, in my front driveway whilst tooling about with an unusually light-sensitive camera upon returning home from an outreach event a little over a month ago. It might look like the horizon is polluted (and it is, slightly), but mainly that's showing the sensitivity of the camera as confirmed by the number of stars it picked up in a quick exposure. If there were significant light pollution then the whole sky would be bright, given how many faint stars it's detecting.



That's from the more light-polluted front drive. Here's another quick, incompetently-taken image - from a late night a week or so later, in the backyard, shielded by the house from the streetlights (indeed, they might've been turned off for the night by that point). The wonky "w" shape of Casseiopeia is somewhere in the centre of the image, oriented vertically. A good indicator of a dark sky is when you struggle to spot constellations because they're swamped by the presence of so many faint stars! (The lovely Double Cluster is the smudge towards the top-left, and the trail in the lower-right is an aircraft).



Obviously both of these images have been shrunk and compressed a bit aggressively to fit inside the forum attachment size limits, but you get the idea, and they were nothing special to begin with: I'm very much more into visual astronomy and know damn-all about photography!

 

[Deacon211]

Well, I can't help you in the trouser department.

But I'd like to say that that jacket looks awesome on you. There's something about you that looks quintessentially and appropriately British and thus entirely at home in an Irvin....like your name should be "Sinn Jinn" or something.

Good luck in your search.

By the by, what is it about Brits that they can pull off "eccentric", wearing what on an American would just be termed the rather more pedestrian "crazy"?

Beautiful pics by the way. Orion the Hunter used to be a good omen for me when I was in the military and I knew no harm would come to me if I saw it that morning.

See? Crazy.


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[Peacoat]

Go ahead and spring for the Aviation Leathercraft, but keep looking for the color you want. After spending the bucks, within days of receiving the AL mismatched color, you will come across exactly what you want.

 

[Edward]

Galland acquired a complete Irvin suit from a bomber crewman early in the War. The jacket was made by Wareings of Northampton. There simply is not the demand today to make repro Irvin trousers a viable proposition and the demand for repro Irvin jackets is not what it was a few years ago.

View attachment 72091

I have a vague notion I read somewhere he wasn't alone on that front, but he's the only Luftwaffe pilot I think I've ever seen who was actually photographed in one (though I've also seen a shot of an unnamed pair of Luftwaffe boys, oned each in an A2 and a B3). I find photos like that of repurposed enemy equipment really fascinating.

 

[Cooper A-2]

Hi,
Galland was not the only one.
There were a few others.
They loved those Made in England and "Amerika" Jackets.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Decided that heated seats for the Miata convertible was a more realistic option for me.